Integral burnable coating for resisting fuel fragmentation, relocation, and dispersal and pellet-cladding bond formation
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorsEdward J. Lahoda, Kyle David Johnson, Mattias Puide
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A nuclear fuel rod with high burnup suppression includes a cladding; a plurality of fuel pellets arranged inside the cladding, each pellet comprising fissile material; and a first layer including a burnable absorber disposed on at least one of an outer surface of the fuel pellets, an inner surface of the cladding, or an outer surface of the cladding, the burnable absorber disposed on the pellet burning out after about 20 MWd/kgU or more of fuel burnup, the burnable absorber disposed on the cladding burning out after about 15 MWd/kgU or more of fuel burnup.
Claims21
A nuclear fuel rod with high burnup suppression, the rod comprising:
- a cladding;
- a plurality of fuel pellets arranged inside the cladding, each pellet comprising fissile material;
- and
- a first layer including a burnable absorber disposed on at least one of an outer surface of the fuel pellets, an inner surface of the cladding, or an outer surface of the cladding, the burnable absorber disposed on the pellet burning out after about 20 MWd/kgU or more of fuel burnup, the burnable absorber disposed on the cladding burning out after about 15 MWd/kgU or more of fuel burnup.
A coating on a surface of a fuel rod, the coating comprising:
- a burnable absorber that burns out after about 20 MWd/kgU or more of fuel burnup.
A method for suppression of high burnup, the method comprising:
- applying a coating to a surface of a fuel rod,
- wherein the coating comprises at least one of boron, gadolinium, europium, dysprosium, samarium, cadmium, iridium, hafnium, ytterbium, erbium, or an oxide, nitride, carbide, or boride thereof;
- and
- suppressing, by the coating, formation of a high-burnup rim structure in the fuel rod until at least 50 MWd/kgU of fuel burnup.
A method for reducing cladding-fuel bonding, the method comprising:
- applying a coating to an outer surface of a fuel pellet comprising uranium dioxide or an inner surface of cladding,
- wherein the coating includes at least one or more chemical compounds that after undergoing neutron-induced transformation into a new species, element, or compound, or undergoing a chemical reaction or otherwise decomposing inhibit formation of a bond between the uranium dioxide and the cladding.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.