The maturing of nuclear fuel: Past to Accident Tolerant Fuel

Nuclear fuel has made great strides from the advent of the nuclear industry at Shippingport to the on-going development of Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) for potential implementation in commercial nuclear plants. The development of Zircaloy-2 fuel with UO2 pellets at Shippingport was revolutionary. Incremental advancements have been made from Zircaloy-2 cladding to Zircaloy-4, and more advanced cladding materials for PWRs and BWRs to significantly improve fuel rod performance over the years. Today, significant steps are being made to further improve nuclear safety by developing cladding materials that could possibly survive severe accidents similar to those that occurred at Three Mile Island Unit 2 and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where release of fission products and hydrogen can be significantly reduced, if not eliminated. This could make existing plants more passively safe in the event of a severe accident. The implementation of ATF cladding, together with advanced pellet materials, will improve safety and can also produce significant economic benefits for the fuel cycle and plants.