Materials science and fuel technologies of uranium and plutonium mixed oxide

Kato, Masato   ; Machida, Masahiko  ; Hirooka, Shun ; Nakamichi, Shinya  ; Ikusawa, Yoshihisa   ; Nakamura, Hiroki  ; Kobayashi, Keita ; Ozawa, Takayuki   ; Maeda, Koji  ; Sasaki, Shinji  ; Matsumoto, Taku; Watanabe, Masashi  ; Morimoto, Kyoichi ; Yokoyama, Keisuke 

Innovative and advanced nuclear reactors using plutonium fuel has been developed in each country. In order to develop a new nuclear fuel, irradiation tests are indispensable, and it is necessary to demonstrate the performance and safety of nuclear fuels. If we can develop a technology that accurately simulates irradiation behavior as a technology that complements the irradiation test, the cost, time, and labor involved in nuclear fuel research and development will be greatly reduced. And safety and reliability can be significantly improved through simulation of nuclear fuel irradiation behavior. In order to evaluate the performance of nuclear fuel, it is necessary to know the physical and chemical properties of the fuel at high temperatures. And it is indispensable to develop a behavior model that describes various phenomena that occur during irradiation. In previous research and development, empirical methods with fitting parameters have been used in many parts of model development. However, empirical techniques can give very different results in areas where there is no data. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to construct a scientific descriptive model that can extrapolate the basic characteristics of fuel to the composition and temperature, and to develop an irradiation behavior analysis code to which the model is applied.