| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2021 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Composite Materials for Nuclear Applications
|
| Presentation Title |
SiGA SiC-SiC Composites Development for Accident Tolerant Fuel |
| Author(s) |
Christian Deck, Rolf Haefelfinger, Jon Sheeder, Lucas Borowski, Sarah Oswald, Joel Kosmatka, Ryan Hon, Kirill Shapovalov, Sean Gonderman, Jack Gazza, Christina Back |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Christian Deck |
| Abstract Scope |
Engineered SiGA SiC-SiC composites are being developed to offer improved performance in normal operation and accident conditions for cladding and fuel assembly structures in light water reactors. Recent efforts at General Atomics have expanded the scale of cladding components that can be fabricated to 1m and longer, and have demonstrated consistent ability to meet demanding dimensional tolerances and surface roughness requirements. Improved cladding and fuel rod designs that offer enhanced pellet-cladding heat transfer have been tested, showing significant improvements in thermal performance of the cladding. This approach supports the use of high burn-up, high enrichment fuel with SiC-SiC-based cladding. Corresponding cladding performance models have been developed to simulate in-operation stresses, incorporating more realistic representation of internal porosity and micro-cracking within the composite. The fabrication, characterization, and modeling progress support current and planned test reactor irradiations to prepare for lead test rod irradiations of SiGA accident tolerant components. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Composites, Ceramics |