Irradiation of Metallic Fuels with Rare Earth Additions for Actinide Transmutation in the Advanced Test Reactor. Experiment Description for AFC-2A and AFC-2B

Abstract

The U.S. Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI), now within the broader context of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), seeks to develop and demonstrate the technologies needed to transmute the long-lived transuranic actinide isotopes contained in spent nuclear fuel into shorter-lived fission products, thereby dramatically decreasing the volume of material requiring disposal and the long-term radio-toxicity and heat load of high-level waste sent to a geologic repository. One important component of the technology development is actinide-bearing metallic transmutation fuel forms containing plutonium, neptunium, americium (and possibly curium) isotopes. The proposed AFC-2A and AFC-2B irradiation experiments are a continuation of the metallic fuel test series in progress in the ATR. This report documents the experiment description and test matrix of the proposed experiments and the Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) and fabrication schedule.