In April 2005, a new 4-year Integrated Project on Very High Temperature Reactors (RAPHAEL: ReActor for Process Heat And ELectricity) was started as part of
EURATOM’s 6th Framework Programme. The Sub-Project on Fuel Technology (SP-FT) is one of eight sub-projects in RAPHAEL, with 8 partners from industry, R&D
organizations and a nuclear-safety expertise organization: CEA, FZ Jülich, JRC, Nexia Solutions, AREVA-NP, NRG, Belgonucléaire and IRSN. While the earlier HTR-F and
HTR-F1 projects aimed at re-mastering fuel fabrication technology, testing existing state-of-the-art HTR fuels at high burn-up and high temperature and understanding fuel behavior), the R&D conducted in RAPHAEL SP-FT focuses on understanding fuel behavior and determining the limits of state-of-the-art fuel as well as on potential further Fabrication processes will be developed for an
alternative kernel composition (UCO), with a potential for
decreasing the CO pressure built-up in the particle, and for an
alternative coating layer (ZrC), which remains more stable at
higher temperature than SiC, thus providing increased
Post-irradiation examinations and heat-up tests
performed on irradiated fuel will allow investigation of the
behavior of state-of-the-art fuel in a VHTR’s normal and
accidental conditions.
Based on the fuel particle models established in FP5,
the fuel modeling capabilities will be improved:
An irradiation will be performed in the HFR Petten for
measuring the changes in coating material properties as a
function of fluence and temperature, with samples
coming from the new fabrication process. This will
allow introduction of particle behavior models for
coatings which are not only more accurate than those
presently based on old data, but also more relevant to
present materials.
Fission-product release modeling and statistical methods
will be developed to integrate the individual behavior of
thousands of particles within fuel elements.
Code benchmarking, started in FP5, will be continued
with the acquisition of new experimental data.
This paper presents progress in RAPHAEL SP-FT as
well as the remaining activities of the earlier HTR-F1 project.
CHAROLLAIS Francois;
BAKKER Klaas;
OBRY Patrick;
SHIHAB Sammy;
GUILLERMIER Pierre;
ABRAM Tim;
WERNER Heinz;
KISSANE Martin;
TOSCANO Enrique;
FUETTERER Michael;
PHELIP Mayeul;
Phelip M, Charollais F, Bakker K, Obry P, Shihab S, Guillermier P, Abram T, Werner H, Kissane M, Toscano E, Fuetterer M. High-Temperature Reactor Fuel Technology in the European Projects HTR-F1 and RAPHAEL. In Conference Proceedings: Proceedings of 3rd International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology - HTR 2006. Potchefstroom (South Africa): North West University; 2006. p. 1-6. JRC34920
2006-11-17
North West University
JRC34920
