A new irradiation experimental system is ready for deployment. The rig, which is the focus of In-Core Real-Time Mechanical Testing of Structural Materials (INCREASE-I), an OECD Nuclear Energy Agency project, will be used to conduct stress-relaxation tests of stainless steel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Reactor (MITR), according to the OECD NEA.

Members of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s Second Framework for Irradiation Experiments (FIDES-II) joint undertaking gathered from September 29 to October 3 in Ketchum, Idaho, for the technical advisory group and governing board meetings hosted by Idaho National Laboratory. The FIDES-II Framework aims to ensure and foster competences in experimental nuclear fuel and structural materials in-reactor experiments through a diverse set of Joint Experimental Programs (JEEPs).

An article in the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s July news bulletin noted that a first test has been completed for the High Burnup Experiments in Reactivity Initiated Accident (HERA) project. The project aim is to understand the performance of light water reactor fuel at high burnup under reactivity-initiated accidents (RIA).