Specialists of NII NPO "Luch" (part of Rosatom) have developed fuel compacts for a promising high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). The fuel was tested in extreme conditions, the state corporation's press service reported.
The experiments took place in the SM-3 reactor at the Rosatom Scientific Institute in Dimitrovgrad.
The fuel was irradiated for more than 500 hours at a temperature of 1600 °C, and some samples were tested at a temperature of about 1700 °C for more than 380 hours.
Another fuel test was carried out in the IVV-2M reactor of the Institute of Reactor Materials (IRM, Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Region).
Fedor Grigoriev, the curator of research work from Rosenergoatom, stated that as a result, more than 20 samples of HTGR fuel were obtained with an achievement of burnup from 3% heavy atoms to 13% heavy atoms. This confirms the inherent characteristics, he added.
