Safety is one of the most important concerns with respect to nuclear power plants. A great deal depends on the safety features incorporated in the reactor designs. The design of the fuel pellets and rods for a nuclear reactor can also contribute to making them safer to operate.
Framatome has just signed a collaboration agreement to test its PROtect enhanced accident tolerant fuel (EATF) technology. Four lead fuel assemblies will be loaded into one of EDF’s French reactors by the end of 2023.
Accident tolerant fuel is a term used to describe new technologies that enhance the tolerance of light-water reactor fuel under severe accident conditions. It also offers improvements to reactor performance and economics. EATF fuels may incorporate the use of new materials and designs for cladding and fuel pellets.
Framatome EATF technology is supported by the France Relance recovery plan and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). The technology is based on advanced chromium coating applied to zirconium alloy cladding, and chromia-enhanced fuel pellets.
PROtech EATF is more tolerant to loss of active cooling in the reactor core for longer period because its reduced oxidation behavior increases “coping time” according to Framatome.
Framatome, EDF and French Alternative Energies and the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) have collectively worked on the chromium coated cladding approach for almost ten years. Framatome’s development efforts led to the first lead fuel rods being inserted in a Swiss and U.S. reactor in 2019. This was followed by the first complete fuel assembly consisting of one hundred percent chromia-enhanced pellets and chromium-coated rods delivered and inserted in a U.S. nuclear power plant in the spring outage of 2021. Recently, the second eighteen-month fuel cycle in a U.S. commercial reactor was completed. Framatome’s PROtect EATF solutions have been implemented in four different nuclear power plants in the U.S. and one in Europe.
These lead fuel assemblies will be manufactured in Framatome French facilities. Framatome said that the results obtained during the EDF irradiation campaign will server to confirm the performance of this technology in a French reactor. It will support the final approval from the French nuclear safety regulators, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire.
Lionel Gaiffe is the senior executive vice president of Framatome's Fuel Business Unit. He said, “Our ambitious PROtect program puts us at the forefront of developing and implementing inherently safe fuel technologies for long-term plant operations. This agreement cements our position and confirms the confidence of our customers in our EATF technology, developed together with the knowledge, skills and expertise of our partners and leaders across the nuclear sector.”
Three companies including Framatome, GE Hitachi with GNF and Westinghouse are working with the DoE to develop new fuels under its Accident Tolerant Fuel Program.
In July of 2022, Westinghouse and EDF agreed to jointly explore the functionalities of Westinghouse’s EnCore ATF technology. Westinghouse stated that it will study the use of the fuel in an EDF reactor for potential deployment across the EDF nuclear fleet after 2030. Westinghouse said that it would deliver EnCore assemblies with lead test rods to EDF from its fuel fabrication facility in Västerås, Sweden, by 2023.