Fuel Design and Fabrication: Fast-Reactor Metal Fuels

The design and fabrication of a nuclear reactor fuel is a complicated process. That process is described here for a fast-reactor metallic fuel. This article discusses the history of using metallic fuel and how the fuel choice changed with time. Knowing that history, the design choices and fabrication methods of Experimental Breeder Reactor-II fuel are used as an example of the process. However, future reactor designs require improved designs, including in fuel and cladding alloys. Some of the design changes, required by the expansion of operating condition ranges, require the use of new fuel compositions or modifications to fuel cladding. These design changes then require modifications to existing fuel fabrication methods. The mitigation of waste also requires design and fabrication changes. The challenges created by these issues are shown here, using some potential new choices of fuel design and fabrication as examples.