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New Trends and Challenges for Nuclear Fuels

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B4: Nuclear Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 863

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Materials and Fuels Complex, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415, USA
Interests: nuclear energy; fast reactor and boiling water reactor fuel performance and design; fuel safety testing and licensing; fuel specification; technical leadership and issue resolution; nuclear materials storage technology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The intention to improve fuel resilience and utilization in light water reactors (LWRs) has motivated the development of new fuel designs, such as accident-tolerant fuels (ATFs). At the same time, an increased need for low-carbon energy generation has motivated private companies to develop and license new reactor designs to bring to the market; these designs will make use of new fuel designs, many of which are new applications of established or previously developed fuel types.

The deployment of these new fuel designs and their applications in existing and advanced reactors will depend on the confidence that reactor owners have in the reliable economic performance of the fuel, as well as the confidence that regulators have in the fuel’s safety-related performance. You are invited to submit papers for publication in a Special Issue of Energies entitled “New Trends and Challenges for Nuclear Fuels”. Rather than focusing on open-sky innovation and research results for new fuel types, the Special Issue intends to explore fuel types and designs that are intended to be used in existing reactors or in advanced reactors that are currently being developed and licensed for the market. In this issue, readers might find discussions on the trends and evolution of prior fuel designs to serve emerging applications, as well as the identification of challenges in near-term deployment, such as issues and uncertainties to be addressed for regulatory approval. Research and testing programs addressing these specific issues can be described and their results presented, along with stated implications for regulatory approval.

The scope of submitted papers might include the following:

  • Applications, current qualification, and regulatory approval status of TRISO particle-type fuel designs;
  • Objectives for specific accident-tolerant fuel designs or other new LWR fuel designs, their current development status, and issues remaining to be addressed;
  • Applications of prior fast reactor fuel designs to new fast-spectrum reactor concepts that are currently being developed;
  • Proposed molten salt fuel applications and their current development status;
  • Objectives for new research reactor fuel designs being brought to market, and their current deployment challenges;
  • Safety analyses of new advanced reactor designs and their implications for fuel designs and behaviour.

Dr. Douglas C. Crawford
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nuclear fuel
  • fuel designs
  • nuclear regulatory approval
  • advanced reactors

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 5092 KiB  
Article
An Innovative Fuel Design for HTGRs: Evaluating a 10-Hour High-Temperature Oxidation of the SiC Fuel Matrix During Air Ingress Accident Conditions
by Yosuke Nishimura, Anna Gubarevich, Katsumi Yoshida and Koji Okamoto
Energies 2024, 17(21), 5366; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17215366 - 28 Oct 2024
Viewed by 590
Abstract
Preventing severe corrosion incidents caused by air ingress accidents in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) while improving heat removal efficiency from the core is of paramount importance. To enhance both safety and efficiency, a sleeveless silicon carbide (SiC)-matrix fuel compact has been proposed. This [...] Read more.
Preventing severe corrosion incidents caused by air ingress accidents in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) while improving heat removal efficiency from the core is of paramount importance. To enhance both safety and efficiency, a sleeveless silicon carbide (SiC)-matrix fuel compact has been proposed. This study evaluates the 10-hour oxidation of reaction-sintered SiC (RS-SiC)-matrix fuel compact under the conditions of an air ingress accident within the temperature range of 1000 to 1400 °C. The oxidation tests were conducted in a stagnant air environment without flow. As a result, it is demonstrated that RS-SiC exhibits exceptional resistance to air oxidation up to 1400 °C, as shown by the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), with minimal mass loss due to the oxidation of free carbon. Scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDX) analysis reveals that the morphology and thickness of the SiO2 layer formed on the RS-SiC surface vary with temperature. At 1400 °C, uniform oxide layer thickness ranging from 1.59 to 4.10 μm and localized nodule-like oxide formations of approximately 10 μm are observed. In contrast, at 1000–1200 °C, thinner oxide layers are identified, indicating that oxide growth accelerates at higher temperatures. The oxidation rates measured provide insights into the mechanisms of oxide growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends and Challenges for Nuclear Fuels)
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