Silicon Carbide Cladding Development

In the 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congress appropriated funds to DOE for the research and development of advanced ATF in response to the incident that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The Fukushima Daiichi incident, along with progress in the development of advanced materials, provided the impetus to improve nuclear fuel performance and safety, thereby mitigating the effects of a severe accident. To support the research and development of advanced ATF, NE, under 2012 guidance, initiated an industry-oriented program to accelerate improvements to LWR fuel performance and safety. The goal of this ATF development effort is to have one or more LWR advanced fuel concepts in commercial implementation in the late 2020's time period. Toward that end several concepts are being pursued that involve either coating on existing LWR clad material or a new non-metallic type of cladding. The silicon carbide ceramic matrix clad concept is an example of the latter. The operational constraint on all ATF concepts is that they fit geometrically into existing LWRs, and, in comparison with standard LWR fuel, should be able to tolerate loss of active cooling in a severe accident for a considerably longer time period, and maintain or improve fuel performance during normal operations. Because of its non-metallic nature, silicon carbide ceramic matrix composite fuel cladding has a potential to tolerate higher accident transient temperatures with lower hydrogen production in the severe accident situation and thereby meet desired ATF safety enhancements. However, silicon carbide ceramic matrix composite fuel cladding has significant manufacturing development hurdles that must also be addressed. The result of the ATF development activities, if successful, will be one or more commercial products that is utilized in existing and future nuclear power plants. While the end user of the new technology will be the nuclear industry, the Government has a major role in facilitating the initial research, development, and deployment (RD&D) to support the effort, because the effort is primarily focused on continued use of clean energy technology with enhanced safety that is in the public's interest.