Research Reactor Fuel Failure Events: Learning from Recent HFIR and NIST Reactor Experience

In the last three years, fuel failures have been experienced in research reactors at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The first of the events occurred in November 2018 at the ORNL High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) resulting in the deformation of several fuel plates in the outer fuel element. The second related event occurred in February 2021 at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) Reactor where damage occurred in a single fuel element. While neither event resulted in significant radiological exposure, each of the affected reactor facilities paused operations to review fuel fabrication, training, operations, quality assurance, and other aspects potentially contributing to the events. This session will be a panel that will discuss these events, the associated causal analyses, planned corrective actions, and lessons learned.

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