The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) has awarded $111.2 million to three industry partners to develop Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF). General Electric (GE), Westinghouse (WEC), and Framatome received the financial assistance awards in late 2018 with FY18 and FY19 funding.
The test marked the return of a capability that is critical to the United States’ role in the development of nuclear fuels, for both the existing fleet and a new generation of advanced reactors under design.
Entergy will insert the lead use rods into ANO unit 1 — a 836 MWe pressurised water reactor — in late 2019.
A new accident-resistant fuel is being tested at Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Test Reactor. This is the second accident-tolerant fuel test in progress.
As an important fuel test reactor in Norway announced this week it would be closing permanently, testing of advanced accident tolerant fuels in the United States continues apace. Meanwhile, both Houses of Congress this month provided healthy levels of funding for the Department of Energy’s ATF research and demonstration program, demonstrating their recognition of the importance of innovation in nuclear fuels.