The nuclear energy industry has long supported and implemented improvements in the nuclear fuel used in its reactor fleet. These improvements have traditionally been incremental. Six months after the March 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan, the U.S. Senate gave the Department of Energy renewed funding for research into a project that already had been underway…
AREVA NP has remained steadfast in its commitment to deliver high-quality fuel and fuel-related products to our customers and utilities throughout the world. That mission started more than 50 years ago and continues today. AREVA NP recently introduced the next generation of fuel designs to the U.S. market – GAIA for pressurized water reactors and…
Following the damage to the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station in 2011, the U.S. Congress directed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to initiate a program to investigate accident-tolerant fuel for nuclear reactors. The goal of this initiative is to find a fuel rod design that is more tolerant to accident conditions than the fuel…
AREVA recently advanced to phase two of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (EATF) Program. After the initial four-year research phase identified promising technologies, DOE awarded the company a $10 million, two-year grant, plus the continued use and support of its national laboratory facilities, to build on this work, and develop…
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…