Time is everything. Especially when you are preventing a potential accident of any kind. In the nuclear energy arena, enhanced accident tolerant fuel (EATF) started with this in mind. In the quest to make this powerful, efficient, and safe form of energy ever safer, a lot of people in the industry were asking the question – how do we give ourselves more time to react in the unlikely scenario of an accident in the nuclear reactor? The operators would have more time to execute their emergency response plans and minimize and prevent the potential risks.
A couple of solutions are to delay the potential generation of hydrogen and reduce the risk for the release of fission products. To do that, Framatome’s EATF solution includes a cladding with a chromium coating for the fuel rods and adding chromia to the fuel pellets.
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