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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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DOE on track to deliver high-burnup SNF to Idaho by 2027
The Department of Energy said it anticipated delivering a research cask of high-burnup spent nuclear fuel from Dominion Energy’s North Anna nuclear power plant in Virginia to Idaho National Laboratory by fall 2027. The planned shipment is part of the High Burnup Dry Storage Research Project being conducted by the DOE with the Electric Power Research Institute.
As preparations continue, the DOE said it is working closely with federal agencies as well as tribal and state governments along potential transportation routes to ensure safety, transparency, and readiness every step of the way.
Watch the DOE’s latest video outlining the project here.
A. Chaieb, R. Largenton, A. Ambard, B. Baurens, M. Ton That
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 2 | February 2024 | Pages 232-244
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2232664
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
CYRANO3 is the thermal-mechanical industrial code developed and used by Electricité de France (EDF) to simulate nuclear fuel rod performance under normal and transient conditions (power ramp tests) in pressurized water reactors and during transport and storage periods, as well. This code has already been successfully used by EDF for the last 30 years to justify normal operations and category 2 transients, covering various types of fuels: UO2, UO2 + gadolinium, mixed oxide, and various claddings, as well those proposed by nuclear fuel suppliers: Zircaloy-4, Zirlo,™ and Optimized Zirlo.™
The CYRANO3 code was recently improved to allow for modeling fuel melting. In this paper, a global overview of CYRANO3’s ability to simulate past power-to-melt (P2M) ramps is presented with a focus on recent developments carried out to assess fuel rod behavior under these conditions. CYRANO3 is demonstrated to be a powerful tool to provide reliable values of melted radii.
As part of validation of these development works, CYRANO3 calculations have been used to assess two P2M ramp experiments carried out in the BR2 experimental core in Belgium (HBC-4 P2M ramp), and in the R2 experimental core in Sweden (xM3 P2M ramp). The main objectives of the work are to expand knowledge of the thermal-mechanical behavior of high-burnup fuel under P2M ramps by making interpretations of test simulations and to validate newly developed computational models for fuel melting that have been implemented in an extended version of the CYRANO3 fuel code.
For both rods, the steady-state irradiation power history was captured and modeling was performed. The key results of the steady-state irradiation modeling are reproduced with fair accuracy by means of CYRANO3 simulations. The results demonstrate the good ability of CYRANO3 to simulate P2M ramps. The melted radii and conditions of failure are well predicted. Calculated melted radius at ramp terminal Linear Heat Generation Rate (LHGR) is in good agreement with the experimental measurements performed after the experiments.
