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Exelon’s Byron 2 Completes First Insertion of Westinghouse Accident-Tolerant Fuel

Exelon’s Byron Unit 2 nuclear power plant has completed installation of EnCore Fuel, Westinghouse Electric Co.’s accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) solution, marking the start of the first test of uranium silicide fuel pellets in a commercial nuclear reactor.

The installation, completed during the plant’s scheduled 18-day spring refueling outage this April, but publicly announced on Sept. 5, marks a major milestone for Westinghouse’s development of the new fuel, which is part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Accident Tolerant Fuel Program, an industry-led effort to deliver the new family of robust fuels to market by 2026.

ATF is an industry concept used to describe new technologies—in the form of new cladding and/or fuel pellet designs—that further enhance the safety and performance of nuclear materials. While ATF technologies have been under development since the early 2000s, they have received a marked boost in the wake of the Fukushima accident in March 2011 as the DOE aggressively implemented plans under its congressionally mandated EATF program to develop ATFs for existing light water reactors. The program today casts a wide net of collaboration that includes several U.S. utilities, universities, and the Electric Power Research Institute, and under it, two vendors have already installed ATF concepts at two U.S. reactors.

A First for Uranium Silicide Pellets

The Byron 2 installation involved insertion of two lead test assemblies that contain chromium-coated zirconium cladding for enhanced oxidation and corrosion resistance, higher density ADOPT pellets—which is a chromia (Cr2O3) and alumina (Al2O3) doped UO2 pellet—for improved fuel economics, and uranium silicide pellets, Westinghouse said on Sept. 5.

According to Westinghouse, EnCore Fuel has the “game-changing” potential to significantly increase public safety through revolutionary new materials, while at the same time improving the economics of plant operation through longer fuel cycles and enhanced flexible power operation capability.

Westinghouse’s, which is seeking a grant totaling more than $93 million from the DOE to develop EnCore Fuel, plans to deploy the new fuel to market in two phases...