Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Materials Section

Nuclear Power Reactor Fuel Engineering


Objective:

To increase the capability of interested Member States to: (a) improve in-pile fuel performance and management of materials; and (b) develop advanced fuel technologies for ensuring reliability and economic efficiency of the nuclear fuel cycle.

Areas of activity:

IAEA programme in the area of nuclear fuel technology and performance is oriented to assist both developed countries in solution of key fuel performance issues (through exchange of information) and developing countries (through harmonization of western and eastern approaches in fuel technology, performance and utilization and transfer of technical knowledge). To cope with these tasks, a specific working group of experts from 26 interested Member States and 2 international organizations was established on water reactor fuels: the Technical Working Group on Water Reactor Fuel Performance and Technology, in short the TWGFPT. The TWGFPT is a standing Working Group within the framework of the IAEA. TWGFPT has recommended the topics on which expertise is required concerning fuel, fuel assemblies and associated core components (e.g control rods, primary and secondary coolant circuits, etc.). They include:

  • behaviour during normal and overpower operation

  • behaviour under postulated and severe accident conditions

  • properties of zirconium alloys and other core materials relevant to performance

  • corrosion, hydrogen pickup, activity transport and related water chemistry

  • examination of irradiated fuel and core components

  • inspection, reconstitution and repair

  • relationship with back-end requirement (interim storage, transport, reprocessing, disposal)

Recent IAEA Publications on Nuclear Fuel Performance and Technologies (2000-2002)

IAEA No Year Title
IAEA-TECDOC-1132 2000 Control assembly materials for water reactors: Experience, performance and perspectives
C&S Paper Series 3/P 2000 MOX Fuel Cycle Technologies for medium and Long Term Deployment
IAEA-TECDOC-1179 2000 Fuel chemistry and pellet-clad interaction related to high burnup fuel
IAEA-TECDOC-1185 2000 Iodine induced stress corrosion cracking of Zircaloy fuel cladding materials
IAEA-TECDOC-1233 2001 Nuclear fuel behaviour modelling at high burnup and its experimental support
IAEA-TECDOC-1277 2002 Advanced post-irradiation examination techniques for water reactor fuel
IAEA-TECDOC-1299 2002 Technical and economic limits to fuel burnup extension
IAEA-TECDOC-1303 2002 High temperature on-line monitoring of water chemistry and corrosion control in water cooled power reactors
IAEA-TECDOC-1320 2002 Fuel behaviour under transient and LOCA conditions

Papers presented at International Meetings, 2000-2002:

V. ONOUFRIEV, R.W. STRATTON, “Status and trends in plutonium recycling in nuclear power reactors”, Plutonium Futures-The Science, (Proc. Topical Conf. on Plutonium and Actinides, Santa Fe, 2000), American Institute of Physics, Melville, New York (2000) 4.

V. ONOUFRIEV, “Conventional and Advanced Ceramic Nuclear Fuels for Water and Liquid metal Cooled power Reactors”, Advanced Ceramics (Proc. Int. Conf., ISAC-2001, Hyderabad, India, 2001), The Indian Ceramic Society, Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata, India (2002) 126-137.

V. ONOUFRIEV, “Review of Fuel Failures in Light Water Cooled Power Reactors”, Materials for Nuclear Engineering, (Proc. Conf., Agoi, Russia, 2002) in publ.

V. ONOUFRIEV, “Advanced methods of QC in nuclear fuel fabrication”, Characterization & Quality Control of Nuclear Fuels-CQCNF 2002, (Proc. Int. Conf., Hyderabad, India, 2002), in publ.

Projects: