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May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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ORNL to partner with Type One, UTK on fusion facility
Yesterday, Oak Ridge National Laboratory announced that it is in the process of partnering with Type One Energy and the University of Tennessee–Knoxville. That partnership will have one primary goal: to establish a high-heat flux facility (HHF) at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bull Run Energy Complex in Clinton, Tenn.
Christopher Matthews, Michael W. D. Cooper, Pieterjan Robbe, Tiernan Casey, Khachik Sargsyan, Habib N. Najm, Giovanni Pastore, Sophie Blondel, Nick Militello, Brian Wirth, Alex Levinsky, Joshua White, Tammie Gibson, Christopher R. Stanek, David A. Andersson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 212 | Number 1 | January 2026 | Pages 126-138
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2025.2505811
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Taking a nuclear fuel concept through the research, development, and qualification stages has historically taken on the order of 20 to 25 years because of extensive irradiation tests required for a variety of conditions. The concept of accelerated fuel qualification (AFQ) has been proposed to increase the innovation pace for nuclear fuels. The goal of AFQ is not to replace the traditional qualification approach but rather to reduce the total number of experiments required to ensure approval from the regulatory authority. Of the many AFQ approaches being explored, advanced modeling—and, in particular, mechanistic modeling—is in a uniquely cross-cutting position to reduce the number of required integral tests through the inclusion of separate-effects testing, while helping to extrapolate reactor performance during rare events. We make the case that propagation of uncertainty through various computational length scales helps contextualize mechanistic modeling. We will utilize UO2 fission gas diffusion predictions from the atomistically informed cluster dynamics code Centipede to inform fuel performance rodlet simulations using the BISON finite element code as the metric for showing how multiscale mechanistic uncertainty quantification can help reduce uncertainty in fuel performance. By quantifying uncertainty and its reduction through multiscale modeling, the qualification process may be accelerated through the reduction of costly irradiation experiments.