Development of high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) fuel in Japan

Ueta, Shohei   ; Aihara, Jun ; Sawa, Kazuhiro; Yasuda, Atsushi*; Honda, Masaki*; Furihata, Noboru*

In Japan, high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) fuel fabrication technologies have been developed by Nuclear Fuel Industries, Ltd. (NFI) with the collaboration of JAEA through the HTTR project since 1960's. NFI successfully fabricated first and second loading fuel (0.9 tU each) for the HTTR of JAEA. Its excellent quality was confirmed from the first loading fuel through the long-termed high temperature operation by the end of March 2010. Based on the HTTR fuel technologies, silicon carbide (SiC) coated fuel is being developed for burn-up extension. For an advanced fuel designs, replacement of the SiC layer by a zirconium carbide (ZrC) layer is a very promising example. JAEA has performed ZrC coating tests to investigate the influence of coating parameters and material properties such as stoichiometry and density of ZrC.