The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) recently sent a comment letter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the industry’s path forward to full accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) deployment.
In the aftermath of the 2011 accident at Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear industry undertook a worldwide research and development effort to further increase fuel margins in the case of a severe accident, leading to the development of different enhanced accident tolerant fuel (EATF) programs.
Since the 1950s, the nuclear energy industry has undergone continual, even if incremental, innovation and development. One of the greatest areas of research is nuclear fuel, especially fuel for the light water reactor (LWR) classes of boiling water reactors (BWRs) and pressurized water reactors (PWRs). From the start, BWR and PWR fuel technologies are designed…