Influence of accident tolerant fuel cladding material on the European pressurised reactor core neutronic characteristics

Abstract

Research on accident tolerant fuel became an important research area to improve safety of the nuclear reactors, especially following the Fukushima disaster. Numerous studies have demonstrated that silicon carbide is a promising candidate material that could potentially replace the zirconium cladding in LWR reactors, which is currently under active research by multiple research and industry organizations. Many of material testing of silicon carbide were already performed and the results are available. Also molybdenum is considered as fuel cladding. This paper is focused on the potential of using silicon carbide and molybdenum as a fuel cladding in the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) core from the neutronic point of view.