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.
Guest post by Jeff Reed, AREVA NP US EATF Program Manager AREVA NP recently announced our partnership with Southern Nuclear to load advanced fuel assemblies with Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (EATF) features in Georgia’s Vogtle Unit 2. This announcement was a key milestone for AREVA NP, its employees and its partners in support of the…
AREVA NP is working in many areas of fuel development. Our priority is to improve the economics of today’s fuel. We introduced two new fuel types: GAIA for 17×17 fuel and ATRIUM 11 for boiling water reactors. ATRIUM 11 has an 11×11 array which distributes power better than the 10×10 array of fuel rods.
The AREVA plant in Richland will begin manufacturing newly developed advanced nuclear fuel assemblies that allow operators more time to respond in emergencies. The plant will start manufacturing the fuel later this year, to be loaded into one of the units at Georgia’s Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in the spring of 2019. AREVA developed the…
AREVA NP yesterday said four lead test assemblies featuring chromia additions to the fuel pellets and a chromium coating to the fuel rod cladding will be loaded into Vogtle unit 2 in spring 2019. The company will begin manufacturing the chromia-doped fuel pellets at its facility in Richland, Washington, later this year. John Williams, nuclear…