Fuel Materials for Next Generation of the Liquid Metal Fast Reactor: Physics, Technology and Acceptability

The main goal of the work is to determine the preferred fuel type for next-generation liquid metal fast reactors (LMFRs). The work considers the applicability of different fuel types for use in LMFRs. The author proposed nuclear fuel based on innovative cermet materials. It is a pellet fuel based on mononitride (UN-PuN) micrograins and uranium metal nanopowder (up to 40% by weight). This fuel allows for solving most of the aforementioned fuel-related problems. The solution is a fuel based on a mixture of micrograins of dioxide (UO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1.8</inf> - Pu<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</inf>O<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7</inf>) and uranium metal nanopowder. The significance of the work lies in identifying the most promising new generation high power LMFRs (within the framework of existing technologies).