Nuclear Engineering Commons^™

Fabrication And Characterization Of Surrogate Fuel Particles Using The Spark Erosion Method, Kathryn Elizabeth Metzger

Theses and Dissertations

In light of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, the Department of Energy's Advanced Fuels Program has shifted its interest from enhanced performance fuels to enhanced accident tolerance fuels. Dispersion fuels possess higher thermal conductivities than traditional light water reactor fuel and as a result, offer improved safety margins. The benefits of a dispersion fuel are due to the presence of the secondary non-fissile phase (matrix), which serves as a barrier to fission products and improves the overall thermal performance of the fuel. However, the presence of a matrix material reduces the fuel volume, which lowers the fissile …