MIT News June 11, 2020
In the wake of an earthquake-triggered tsunami sparked a global race for solutions to improve nuclear safety and develop accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) to avert future reactor breakdowns. In Fukushima, there were hydrogen explosions because of interactions between the conventional zirconium-based fuel cladding and high temperature steam produced when the safety system failed, and coolant water heated up. Researchers at MIT packed CVD-fabricated, cylindrically shaped fuel particles into a bundle that fits into a typical fuel rod and replace the conventional zirconium fuel rod cladding with silicon carbide composite to slow down hydrogen generation. This would hypothetically enable “retrofitting” current nuclear plants with new and safer materials. The uranium and carbon fuel cylinders wrapped in silicon carbide, stuffed into a silicon carbide-clad fuel rod, can theoretically survive temperatures up to 1,800 degrees Celsius, which might enable nuclear reactors to run at higher power levels…read more.
An accident-tolerant fuel design can provide an additional layer of containment while packing three to four times the fuel mass per volume as compared to competing fuel forms with similar safety characteristics. Credit: Koroush Shirvan