Technology 20 Developing accident-tolerant fuels INL is working with industry to develop fuels with enhanced tolerance to accident conditions. The multiyear effort has been preparing to introduce three experimental fuels into INL’s Advanced Test Reactor. In FY 2017, engineers established the conditions and chemistry to mimic a commercial pressurized water reactor. A sensor for the experiments was also tested at the Westinghouse Advanced Loop Tester Facility to ensure it could withstand the conditions inside ATR, where the sensor is now being tested. INL also continued fabrication of industry silicide fuel for use in ATR irradiations. TerraPower fuel extrusion INL is working cooperatively with Washington-based TerraPower to demonstrate the ability to produce fuel slugs using extrusion — a process of shaping material by forcing it through a die. TerraPower is developing a Traveling Wave Reactor (TWR) concept, a new type of fast reactor. In collaboration with TerraPower, INL achieved the first successful extrusion of a TerraPower fuel design, restoring a metallic fuel fabrication capability that has not been used in the U.S. since the 1980s. Recovering Fast Flux Test Facility fuel The Joint Fuel Cycle Studies Integrated Recycling Test aims to electrochemically recycle used nuclear fuel by reducing the material from oxide form to metal form, then recovering uranium and transuranium elements for recycled fuel fabrication tests. A milestone in that work was the “Complete Decladding Test of the First Irradiated FFTF Element.” The effort involved 14 mixed oxide (MOX) fuel rods from the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) at the DOE’s Hanford site. INL experts successfully removed the protective cladding material in the Hot Fuel Examination Facility hot cell at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex. The oxide materials recovered are being used to support subsequent oxide reduction and electrorefining tests. The Experimental Fuel Facility where INL experts demonstrated the ability to produce fuel slugs using extrusion. INNOVATION & DEPLOYMENT