2018 | AFC ACCOMPLISHMENTS 11 This report provides concise summaries of many of the significantAFC accom- plishments made during FY-18. Of particular note are the following key accomplishments and their significance: • An update to the original ATF Roadmap to Congress was provided to Department of Energy (DOE), which includes a vision for the deployment of the first batch reloads of one or more ATF concepts in com- mercial reactor(s) by 2025-2026. • An alignment workshop was held between the AFC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and industry participants active in developing ATF concepts, the result of which was greatly improved communication and cooperation relative to activities needed to advanced ATF concepts toward eventual licensing activities. • A gap assessment was completed, and mitigation strategies were developed, to address the shutdown of the Halden reactor and the important role it was expected to play in testing and qualification of ATF concepts. • Early results from postirradiation examination (PIE) ofWestinghouse and Framatome fuels fromATF-1 testing in theAdvancedTest Reactor (ATR) were obtained, providing valu- able insight into their performance as ATF concepts. • The multi-year activity to establish a prototypic testing environment in the ATR was completed, and the ATF-2 pressurized water loop began operation with test fuels supplied by Westinghouse and Framatome and including standard oxide/zircaloy reference pins to be conditioned for futureTransient ReactorTest Facility (TREAT) experiments. • A high burnup commercial fuel segment was refabricated in a hot cell environment and subjected to a simu- lated loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in the Severe AccidentTest Station (SATS), demonstrating the successful reestablishment of a domestic LOCA testing capability that had been lost but will be needed for qualifying ATF fuel concepts. • A new MiniFuel irradiation device was designed for the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), which will provide the capability for performing separate effects tests on ATF fuel concepts to inform and validate ATF fuel modeling activities. • A new fabrication line capable of supplying silicide fuel pellets for the Westinghouse lead fuel rod project was established, and pellet produc- tion was in progress as the year came to an end. • Characterization of the corrosion and hydriding performance of silicide fuel (U3Si2) was completed, which identified behaviors under hypothet- ical leaker fuel scenarios what will be important for developers to address. • Significant advances were made in development and testing of oxide dispersion-strengthened (ODS) versions of FeCrAl alloys, including conventional and modified burst testing of these and other ATF clad- ding materials. • The first transient experiment in the restartedTREAT reactor was performed, which included a fueled ATF- Separate EffectsTest Holder (SETH) capsule designed and fabri- cated by AFC. • Fabrication of annular metallic fuels by extrusion was demonstrated, important advances were made in identifying and testing metallic fuel additives that could mitigate or eliminate fuel-cladding chemical interaction, and a new process was developed to rapidly produce small quantities of pure Am and Np metallic feedstock materials. • Metallic fuels for the Integrated Recycle Test (IRT) were fabricated in a remote hot cell environment using actinide materials recovered from spent fuel, and irradiation of IRT-1 began in the ATR, which will soon provide important informa- tion on the performance of recycled metallic fuels. • PIE results were obtained for annular, low smear density metallic fuels, showing very promising performance for future once-through, ultra-high burnup applications. • A concept was developed for greatly increasing the burnup rate of nuclear fuels in the ATR, which along with advanced, mechanistic modeling offers genuine promise in acceler- ating the development and qualifica- tion of new fuels. • The first release was made of the BISON fuel performance code with a mature and comprehensive capability to model metallic fuels, and accom- plishment realized in cooperation with NEAMS.