Fuel Irradiation
How does nuclear fuel behave in various irradiation conditions? We irradiate your fuel to increase the knowledge of its behavior, or to qualify new nuclear fuels.
About Fuel Irradiations
Fuel is the core of the nuclear reactor. It is important to understand the behavior of uranium, plutonium or thorium fuels for safe operation. We determine and measure the behavior of new and existing nuclear fuels under irradiation conditions. Hereby, we support the continuous improvement of nuclear fuels.
New types of reactors require different kind of fuels. We have a long history in testing and qualifying new fuel types. One of these types is the High Temperature Reactors which uses fuel pebbles.
Typical activities that we carry out in our daily work are:
- Manufacture and handling of fuel and materials samples in a safe and isolated environment
- Design and build irradiation facilities 100% in-house,
- Irradiation under stable neutron flux and spectrum
- Development of sensors for in-situ monitoring of crucial parameters such as: gas flow, gas composition, temperature, strain, sample dimensions.
- After irradiation: examination, characterization and mechanical testing of samples
- Treatment and storage of nuclear waste
Fuel Creep
Creep is the deformation of fuel under stress and is an important parameter for nuclear fuel. It helps in reducing stresses on the cladding of fuel in power reactors. NRG has developed a new technique to measure fuel creep at high temperatures with very high accuracy.
High Temperature Reactor Fuel Irradiation
High temperature reactors are being developed all over the world. These reactors use a completely different fuel concept compared to light water reactors. The fuel consists of particles smaller than a millimeter coated with different layers. These are called TRISO particles. Several thousands are pressed in a pebble or compact which is the final fuel element. A core of a pebble bed high temperature reactor consists of a few hundred thousand of these pebbles to make up the core of the reactor.
NRG has a long history of testing and qualifying these materials. The fuel of the HTR-PM, the latest HTR that is under construction was tested and qualified in the HFR.
Zircaloy
Zircaloy is the most used cladding material for light water reactors. It is the first barrier between the fuel and the coolant water and it is therefore essential to study and understand the behavior.
NRG has several techniques to study the behavior both in the lab and in irradiation conditions. We use these techniques to qualify the cladding material for reactor application.
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Fuel Irradiation?
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