Preparation and research progress of accident tolerant fuel pellets

Abstract

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, the accident tolerant fuel (ATF) is developed to improve the ability of nuclear fuel components to resist the serious accidents and becomes the hot research topic in the nuclear industry. The enhanced thermal conductivity UO2 pellets represented by BeO and SiC doping, high uranium density and high thermal conductivity fuel pellets, and fully ceramic microencapsulated fuel pellets were reviewed in this paper. The advantage characteristics, thermal conductivity, preparation process, and research progress of the accident resistant fuel pellets were introduced. The problems and application prospects of the accident resistant fuel pellets were focused and prospected to provide the reference for the study of the accident tolerant fuel pellets.

Keywords

• accident tolerant fuel
• fuel pellets
• uranium dioxide
• high uranium density
• fully ceramic microencapsulated fuel