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.
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