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Oak Ridge focuses neutron scattering studies on TRISO fuels
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is reporting a development in TRISO fuel research that could help evaluate high-temperature gas reactor fuels. ORNL researchers used the Spallation Neutrons and Pressure Diffractometer at the lab’s Spallation Neutron Source to make neutron scattering measurements on TRISO fuel particles containing high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU).
Wilson Cowherd, John Stillman, John Gahl, Leslie Foyto, Erik Wilson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 2 | February 2021 | Pages 167-181
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1763720
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new type of low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel based on an alloy of uranium and molybdenum is expected to allow the conversion of U.S. domestic high-performance research and test reactors requiring high density fuel from highly enriched uranium (HEU) to LEU. The University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR®) has undergone design and performance calculations for conversion to this LEU fuel. Presented in this paper is the analysis of a crucial step in the conversion process: the sequence of MURR transition cores from all fresh to equilibrium burnup LEU operations. During the initial conversion from HEU to LEU fuel, MURR will operate atypically due to the lack of burned LEU elements. Given the constraints of MURR operation and experiments, a proposed transition scheme minimizes the time MURR operates atypically compared to the prototypic cycles currently run with HEU fuel and moves quickly to the same sort of equilibrium cycles for the LEU fuel.