Westinghouse produces first batch of LEU+ fuel pellets
Westinghouse Electric Company announced Aug. 8 that it has completed the first pressing of ADOPT nuclear fuel pellets at the company’s Springfields Fuel Manufacturing Facility in the United Kingdom. The pellets, which can contain up to 8 percent uranium-235 by weight, are destined for irradiation testing in Southern Nuclear’s Vogtle-2 pressurized water reactor.
Enrichment bump up: Low-enriched uranium enriched up to 8 percent fits under no fewer than three labels: LEU, LEU+ (a term recently popularized by enrichment companies and nuclear technology developers for uranium enrichments between 5 and 10 percent U-235), and HALEU, or high-assay low-enriched uranium, which is defined as all uranium enrichment levels between 5 and 20 percent U-235.
LEU+ can be handled by licensed Category III fuel facilities operating today, and fuels within that range offer the most potential for use by light water reactors, while advanced reactors using liquid metal, gas, or molten salt coolants are more likely to take advantage of enrichments up to the 20 percent HALEU limit.
Compared with standard LEU fuel of up to 5 percent U-235, LEU+ ADOPT fuel allows the “generation of more power with fewer replacement bundles within the reactor core, offering improved nuclear fuel cycle economics for operating reactors,” according to Westinghouse.
Westinghouse’s website describes ADOPT as “an improved UO2 design, doped with small amounts of chromia (Cr2O3) and alumina (Al2O3). By utilizing small amount of alumina, Westinghouse has been able to keep the amount of chromium (a parasitic neutron absorber) to a minimum, thereby improving neutron efficiency.”
“The first production of LEU+ ADOPT fuel is a key step for achieving longer fuel cycles and reducing operational costs in the nuclear fuel industry,” said Tarik Choho, president of Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel. “This significant milestone, which is part of our EnCore Accident Tolerant Fuel program, will help us provide safer, more economical, reliable, clean energy to our customers across the world.”
Props to the DOE: Westinghouse’s ADOPT fuel was developed through the Department of Energy’s Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) Program to help boost the performance and safety of nuclear plants. Framatome and GE’s Global Nuclear Fuel have also developed accident tolerant fuel concepts with support from the DOE.
According to an Aug. 8 DOE press release, the enriched uranium oxide powder that went into the new pellets was prepared by Idaho National Laboratory—marking the first time DOE material has been used to support the increased enrichment of a commercial uranium oxide fuel above 5 percent.
From “accident tolerant” to “high energy”: On its website, Westinghouse appears to be leaning away from the term “accident tolerant fuel”—which reflects the origin of the DOE ATF program in the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011—and toward “high energy fuel,” which emphasizes operational flexibility, lower fuel cycle costs, and higher burnup and enrichment to “generate more power with fewer bundles.” Included in the company’s High Energy Fuel Program are several branded and trademarked fuel technologies: EnCore, AXIOM, PRIME, and ADOPT.
While its first batch of LEU+ ADOPT was pressed in Britain, Westinghouse intends to manufacture the fuel at its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. In Oct. 2023, Westinghouse announced that it was “creating a center of excellence for low enriched uranium plus (LEU+) fuel manufacturing in South Carolina.”
Headed to Georgia: The first LEU+ ADOPT fuel pellets will be fabricated into pins and loaded into four lead test assemblies in the United Kingdom before they are shipped to the United States for irradiation testing, according to the DOE.
The first use of LEU+ ADOPT nuclear fuel pellets in a commercial reactor is expected in spring 2025, when they will be inserted in lead test assemblies at Southern Nuclear’s Vogtle-2 in Waynesboro, Ga.
