Architecture and properties of TCR fuel form

The fuel form developed for the Transformational Challenge Reactor demonstration program leverages recent advances in manufacturing, materials, and computational sciences, delivering a new architecture for production of high-performance microencapsulated nuclear fuels. The fuel consists of conventionally manufactured uranium nitride tristructural isotropic fuel particles embedded inside a 3D-printed silicon carbide matrix. This paper describes the overall architecture and manufacturing process for this fuel form, its properties and behavior, and the ongoing development activities. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The newly developed nuclear fuel leverages recent advances in manufacturing, materials, and computational sciences to produce high-performance microencapsulated nuclear fuel in a new architecture. The fuel consists of conventionally manufactured uranium nitride tristructural isotropic fuel particles embedded inside a 3D-printed silicon carbide matrix.