Southern Nuclear to implement next-generation nuclear fuel enhancements

Southern Nuclear to implement next-generation nuclear fuel enhancements A Step Towards Advanced Nuclear Fuel Nuclear fuel for light-water reactors (the technology now operating and that would be used in several Small Modular Reactor designs) is optimized to produce lots of energy. Still, a refinement under discussion for the last decade is “accident tolerant fuel,” which would be coated with various substances to make it more heat-resistant and could survive a loss of cooling for longer without damage. Now, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given permission for a small batch of such fuel to be loaded at a current-generation reactor, Georgia Power’s Vogtle 2, near Augusta. This is significant for the generation of reactors to come for several reasons. It means that the accident-tolerant fuel may be commercially demonstrated before the new models are ready for their first fuel loads. The coatings tend to steal some of the neutrons, the sub-atomic particles that sustain the chain reaction. So, the new fuel must have a higher enrichment or higher proportion of uranium-235. The standard in current reactors is five percent, but Georgia Power has announced that it has permission to load fuel enriched to 6 percent. This is a small first step. Some of the advanced designs call for enrichments of up to 20 percent. Higher enrichments could also stretch the refueling intervals to 2 years from 18 months, which reactors like Vogtle, a pressurized water model, typically use. Vogtle is part of Southern Nuclear, which is already trying out accident-tolerant fuel on a boiling water reactor, Hatch.