Framatome’s GAIA Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (EATF) technology recently completed its first 18-month fuel cycle at a nuclear power plant in the United States. This milestone marks the first time a full-length EATF concept with both pellets and cladding completed a fuel cycle in a reactor.

The plant’s experts removed and inspected the four lead fuel assemblies (LFAs) during a refueling outage in August and concluded that the fuel demonstrated expected results and excellent performance. This was the first of three planned 18-month cycles of operation for the LFAs, which were inserted into the reactor in April 2019. More detailed inspections and measurements are planned following the remaining two fuel cycles.

View the full press release at the Framatome site.