AFC-1 Fuel Rodlet Fission Power Deposition Validation in ATR

One of the viable options of long-term geological disposal of the nuclear power reactors generated spent fuel is to extract plutonium, the minor actinides (MA) and potentially long-lived fission products from the spent fuel and transmute them into short-lived or stable radionuclides in an appropriate reactor for the reduction of the radiological toxicity of the nuclear waste stream. An important component of that technology will be a non-fertile / low-fertile actinide transmutation fuel form containing the plutonium, neptunium, americium (and possibly curium) isotopes to be transmuted. Such advanced fuel forms, especially ones enriched in the long-life minor actinide (LLMA) elements (i.e., Np, Am, Cm), have minimal irradiation performance data available from which to establish a transmutation fuel form design. Recognizing these needs, an Advanced Fuel Cycle test series-1 (AFC-1) irradiation test on a variety of candidate fuel forms is now being conducted in Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The first advanced fuel experiment (AFC-1) has been finalized and the test assembly analyzed for insertion and irradiation in ATR. The ATR core consists of a serpentine and rotationally symmetric fuel assembly about the z-axis of the core center. The plan view of the ATR core configuration is shown in Fig. 5, in Ref. 1. A cadmium filter with a 0.178 cm (0.045") thickness and 121.5 cm (48") in length, is currently used in the actinide-fuel capsule design for the East Flux Trap (EFT) position in ATR, to depress the linear heat generation rate (LHGR) lower than the project’s 330 W/cm limit for the experimental fuel rodlets. The LHGR is proportional to the fission power deposited in the fuel rodlets from the neutron fissions. The fraction of the fission power generated from the neutron fission reactions deposited in the fuel rodlet is an important parameter for test assembly thermal analysis, which will be validated in this summary