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As required by DOE Order 413.2B the FY 2014 Program Plan is written to communicate areas of investment and approximate amounts being requested for the upcoming fiscal year. The program plan also includes brief highlights of current or previous LDRD projects that have an opportunity to impact our Nation's current and future energy challenges.
Advanced fuel claddings made entirely or mainly of silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics and/or composites are considered very attractive elements of the accident-tolerant fuels for the light water reactors. In order to translate the promise of SiC composite materials into a reliable fuel cladding, a coordinated program of component level design and materials development must be carried out with many key feasibility issues addressed a-priori to inform the process. With the primary objective of developing a draft blueprint of a technical program that addresses the critical feasibility issues; assesses design and performance issues related with manufacturing, operating, and off-normal events; and advances the technological readiness levels in essential technology elements, a draft plan for the Systematic Technology Evaluation Program for SiC/SiC Composite Accident-Tolerant LWR Fuel Cladding and Core Structures was developed in the FY-14 Advanced Fuels Campaign of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fuel Cycles Research and Development Program. This document summarizes the status of execution of the technical plan within the activities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
This summary report contains an overview of work performed under the work package entitled “FY2014 NEAMS INL-Engineering Scale Fuel Performance & Interface with RPL Tools.” A first chapter identifies the specific FY-14 milestones, providing a basic description of the associated work and references to related detailed documentation. Where applicable, a representative technical result is provided. A second chapter summarizes substantial additional work including 1) efforts to improve numerical convergence and contact in BISON, 2) development of capability to simulate hydrogen behavior in Zircaloy cladding and 3) efforts to enhance collaborative work with the Halden Research Program. A final chapter briefly outlines planned future work.
In FY-13, a case study evaluation was performed of full recycle technologies for both the processing of light-water reactor (LWR) used nuclear fuels as well as fast reactor (FR) fuel in the full recycle option. This effort focused on the identification of the case study processes and the initial preparation of material balance flowsheets for the identified technologies. In identifying the case study flowsheets, it was decided that two cases would be developed: one which identifies the flowsheet as currently developed and another near-term target flowsheet which identifies the flowsheet as envisioned within two years, pending the results of ongoing research. The case study focus is on homogeneous aqueous recycle of the U/TRU resulting from the processing of LWR fuel as feed for metal fuel fabrication. The metal fuel is utilized in a sodium-cooled fast reactor, and the used fast reactor fuel is processed using electrochemical separations. The recovered U/TRU from electrochemical separations is recycled to fuel fabrication and the fast reactor. Waste streams from the aqueous and electrochemical processing are treated and prepared for disposition. Off-gas from the separations and waste processing are also treated. As part of the FY-13 effort, preliminary process unknowns and research needs to advance the near-term target flowsheets were identified. In FY-14, these research needs were updated, expanded and prioritized. This report again updates the prioritized list of research needs based upon results to date in FY-15. The research needs are listed for each of the main portions of the flowsheet: 1) Aqueous headend, 2) Headend tritium pretreatment off-gas, 3) Aqueous U/Pu/Np recovery, 4) Aqueous TRU product solidification, 5) Aqueous actinide/lanthanide separation, 6) Aqueous off-gas treatment, 7) Aqueous HLW management, 8) Treatment of aqueous process wastes, 9) E-chem actinide separations, 10) E-chem off-gas, 11) E-chem HLW management. The identified research needs were prioritized within each of these areas. No effort was made to perform an overall prioritization. This information will be used by the MRWFD Campaign leadership in research planning for FY-16. Additionally, this information will be incorporated into the next version of the Case Study Report scheduled to be issued September 2015.