Irradiation testing of actinide transmutation fuels in the advanced test reactor..

摘要

The first irradiation experiment to evaluate the technical feasibility of proposed acitnide transmutation fuels for the US. Accelerator Transmutation of Waste program is currently under design. The goal of this irradiation experiment is to obtain initial irradiation performance data on candidate transmutation fuel concepts. The candidate fuels include non-fertile variations of (1) metallic alloys, (2) nitrides, (3) oxides, and (4) metal-matrix dispersion fuels. These fuels will be irradiated in the form of rodlets in the Advanced Test Reactor in Idaho beginning in September 2002. it is expected that postirradiation examinations will be performed on these fuels at the (approx) 7 and 20 at.-% burnup levels. This paper presents the design of the irradiation test vehicle and the fuel rodlets; the test matrix of fuel variations, the target test conditions; and the planned postirradiation examinations.