R&D plan for development of oxidation-resistant graphite and investigation of oxidation behavior of SiC coated fuel particle to enhance safety of HTGR

Ueta, Shohei   ; Sumita, Junya ; Shibata, Taiju ; Aihara, Jun ; Fujita, Ichiro*; Ohashi, Jun*; Nagaishi, Yoshihide*; Muto, Takenori*; Sawa, Kazuhiro; Sakaba, Nariaki 

A new concept of the High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR), so-called the Naturally Safe HTGR, is proposed as a challenge to assure no event sequences to the harmful release of radioactive materials even when the design extension conditions such as the air/water ingress accidents occur by deterministic approach based on the inherent safety features of the HTGR. For the Naturally Safe HTGR it is important to prevent recriticality accidents by keeping the geometry of the fuel rod which consists of the graphite sleeve, fuel compact and SiC-TRISO coated fuel particle, and by improving the oxidation resistance of the graphite when air/water ingress accidents occur. This paper describes the R&D plan for un-irradiation and irradiation test under simulating air/water ingress accident condition to develop oxidation-resistant graphite and to investigate the oxidation behavior of SiC coated fuel particle.