b'Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) and High Burnup -Higher Enrichment (HBHE) Fuel Industry Teams Principal Investigator: Westinghouse Electric Company LLCPrincipal Investigator: E. J. LahodaTeam Members/ Collaborators: Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, General Atomics (GA), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Exelon Nuclear, University of Wisconsin (UW), National Nuclear Laboratory (United Kingdom) (NNL), University of Virginia, University of South Carolina, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), University of Tennessee (UT), University of Texas at San Antonio, Air Liquide (AL), and Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) (KTH)WestinghouseW estinghouse is workingThe immediate tasks are focused to commercializeon supporting design and licensing EnCore Fuel isunique accident tolerantactivities to develop the required EnCore* fuel designs with the capa- experimental backup to obtain U.S. game-changing for235the nuclear industry,bility of using higherU enrichedNuclear Regulatory Commission ADOPTTM* fuel (Cr 2 O 3 +Al 2 O 3doped(NRC) approval for insertion of significantly increasingUO 2 ) or U15N fuel to achieve burnupsregion quantities of Cr coated Zr with safety margins in severe of around 75 MWd/kgU; Cr coatedADOPT pellets and with 5% enriched accident scenarios,235Zr-Alloy or SiGA* silicon carbideU pellets to increase achievable increasing flexibility235(SiC) cladding with higherUburnups to 75 MWd/kgU, allowing for fuel management15and, coupled withenriched fuel or U N fuel uraniumthe potential of more economical HBHE for longer fuelnitride (UN) fuel. 24-month cycles in pressurized water cycles which can lowerProject Description: reactors.Additional tasks include:operating costs, EnCoreLead test rods (LTRs) of Cr coated Develop oxidation resistant UN and Fuel becomes thecladding were retrieved and sent toproduction technologies;clear utility choice forORNL in October 2020 (Figure 1), and Develop low-cost methods for manu-increased safety andCr coated Zr claddings with ADOPTfacturing SiC and Cr coated rods;cost efficiency. and UO 2pellets from the Advanced High temperature out-of-reactor Test Reactor (ATR) in March 2021bundle testing of Cr coated cladding to (Figure 2). Plans to load SiC clad tubesvalidate the MAAP and MELCOR codes with Mo pellets into the ATR in 2022to determine potential operational sav-and to perform leaker rod tests in theings and to support licensing changes Westinghouse autoclaves in Churchill,will begin in the 4th quarter of 2021 PA are progressing.Cr coated Zrand in 2022 at the Karlsruhe Institute cladding and SiC cladding will beof Technology (KIT). loaded into the BR-2 reactor as part of the European Union funded Il Travatore program at the end of 2021.94 2021|AFC ACCOMPLISHMENTS'