Fabrication, Reprocessing, and Fuel Design for TRU TRISO Particles in a Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor

摘要

A conceptual design for a sub-critical, fast, gas-cooled reactor to be fueled with transuranics (TRU) from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is being developed at Georgia Tech. A primary objective of this design is to achieve ≥ 90% burnup of the TRU fuel, with or preferably without reprocessing. The TRISO coated fuel particle embedded in a SiC matrix in clad fuel pins was chosen as the reference fuel form. A multifaceted study of this fuel form has been conducted. A new TRISO fuel particle was designed with the objective of long lifetime in a fast neutron fluence, and comparison of possible clad materials was made. Fabrication and reprocessing procedures for the TRISO particle were developed.