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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Researchers use one-of-a-kind expertise and capabilities to test fuels of tomorrow
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
F. List, P. Knudsen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 20 | Number 2 | November 1973 | Pages 103-108
Technical Paper | Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT73-A31345
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fuel pins of UO2-Zr were irradiated to a burnup of 5600 MWd/MT UO2 in the OECD Halden Boiling Water Reactor. As a result, the pellet stacks shortened by ∼0.7%. A mathematical model, based on a ratcheting pellet movement resulting from mechanical fuel-cladding interaction during successive irradiation periods, accounted well for the observed decrease in length. Examination of the inside of the cladding at several axial locations confirmed the ratcheting mechanism and indicated no contribution to pellet-stack shortening from isotropic fuel densification.
