Safety consideration for the introduction of new fuels and materials

Onizawa, Kunio 

After TEPCO Fukushima-Daiichi NPS accident, new fuels and materials have been developed in the OECD/NEA member countries. The objective of the development is to have new fuels with enhanced accident tolerance, especially for severe accident conditions. For the new fuel development, similar to the conventional ones, many kinds of information are necessary to maintain the safety functions of the fuel. The fuel safety should be confirmed not only for severe accidents, but also for various conditions such as normal operation, design basis accidents, transportation and so on. Preparation of experimental databases with high reliability and analytical tools are also needed to confirm the safety of the new fuels. Therefore, test reactors and hot laboratories play important roles in the acquisition of in-reactor data which are the key information as the technical basis of safety judgement. In this presentation, safety requirements under various plant conditions which are considered in the new fuel development is explained. The importance of experiments using test reactors and laboratories for new fuel development is also explained including examples of JAEA facilities.