Accident-Resistant Fuel Being Tested at INL
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.
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.
Framatome’s Jeff Whitt participated last week in the Foundation for Nuclear Studies Hill briefing.
The U.S. nuclear industry just hit a major milestone in developing new and improved fuels for its current fleet of reactors. Framatome’s accident tolerant fuel (ATF) was recently installed for testing at the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
The US Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) reported yesterday that coordination among the various entities involved in the development of accident-tolerant fuels (ATF) has “progressed to the point that all stakeholders now agree on the feasibility of a 2023 timeline”.