The mission of the Advanced Fuels
Campaign (AFC) is to perform Research, Development, and Demonstration
(RD&D) activities for advanced fuel forms (including cladding) to:
•Enhance
the performance and safety of the nation’s current and future reactors
•Enhance
proliferation resistance of nuclear fuel
•Effectively
utilize nuclear energy resources
•Address
the longer-term waste management challenges.
This includes development of state-of-the
art Research and Development (R&D) infrastructure to support the use of a
“goal-oriented science-based approach.” This approach is aimed at a fundamental
understanding of fuel and cladding fabrication methods and performance under
irradiation, enabling the pursuit of multiple fuel forms for future fuel cycle
options. Work includes fundamental experiments, theory, and advanced modeling
and simulation. The modeling and simulation activities for fuel performance are
carried out under the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS)
program, which is closely coordinated with AFC.
The term “fuel” includes fuels, targets, and their associated cladding
materials.
AFC is organized into three technical
areas and is integrated with NEAMS for fuels modeling and simulation. The
technical areas are 1) Advanced LWR Fuels, 2) Transmutation Fuels, and 3)
Capability Development.
