The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s researchers have begun examining high burnup fuel rods manufactured by a GE Vernova company.
The high burnup assemblies delivered by Global Nuclear Fuel, a GE Vernova-led venture with Hitachi, were shipped to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Washington state after spending six years in a commercial reactor as a port of DOE’s Accident Tolerant Fuel program, DOE said in its Wednesday Aug. 13 press release.
GE Vernova is developing several advanced fuels through the Accident Tolerant Fuel program to aid in lowering operational costs and improving nuclear safety.
High burnup fuels use more of the fissile material in the nuclear fuel to allow for longer operation. The high burnup fuels could also be used to power uprates at existing nuclear plants.
The high burnup fuel rods will include full and partial length rods, which is unique to boiling water reactors, DOE said. The assemblies were removed from the reactor in 2023.
GE Vernova said the assemblies were redesignated as high burnup lead use assemblies through Global Nuclear Fuel’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved licensing process and reloaded for an additional cycle to achieve operation in the reactor beyond current NRC licensing limits.
PNNL will perform post-irradiation experiments on Global Nuclear Fuel’s high burnup fuel rods over the next several years at its radiochemical processing laboratory in Richland, Wash., according to DOE.
The data from PNNL’s studies will be used to support Global Nuclear Fuel’s development, engineering and licensing efforts, GE Vernova said.
According to GE Vernova, the fuel delivered to PNNL is the same design as the initial core design of the BWRX-300 small modular reactor. The data received from the program will be used to help with potential future economic improvements in BWRX-300 fuel cycle, including stretching fuel cycle lengths to 36 to 48 months, the company said.