2018 | AFC ACCOMPLISHMENTS 19 to the accuracy needed.Work in FY18 established the basic approaches for this method and established the theo- retical error. Postirradiation examina- tion of the first MiniFuel samples in FY19 will validate these analyses and provide insights regarding future improvements. Existing state of the art microscopy and small-scale test methods already in place at the Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis Laboratory (LAMDA) have already been used for characterization of irradiated fuel materials and will further augment PIE. The ability of AFC researchers to fabricate test samples using depleted or natural uranium significantly brings down the cost of sample fabrication, increasing the number of variables that can be investigated. For example, uranium dioxide containing various dopants at differing levels can be irradiated to assess their impact on fission gas release.Traditional inte- gral testing would require that each rodlet contain fuel pellets of a single chemistry. Constraints on irradiation capacity would limit AFC to only a few different dopants every few years.The MiniFuel design provides the ability to study a wide range of dopants, as each sample is individually encapsulated. In a few calendar years, numerous dopants, concentrations, and irradia- tion temperatures can be studied. Initial focus of MiniFuel irradiations in the coming years will be screening of fuel compositions and baseline data sets for the modeling and simula- tion communities. Interest from the broader nuclear fuels community in use of the MiniFuel capability for screening studies has also been signifi- cant. Once fully demonstrated and optimized, the MiniFuel irradiation will position AFC to perform unprec- edented investigation of nuclear fuel behavior at a cost and throughput rate not possible using traditional testing.