SIMFUEL: Simulated high-burnup nuclear fuel

Traditional nuclear fuel qualification methods using post-irradiation examination (PIE) studies are both timely and costly. SIMFUEL aims to replicate the chemical state of solid fission products generated during irradiation, expediting our understanding of the materials’ behaviour at high burnup towards the end of its time in a reactor and enabling down-selection for the PIE studies. This project focuses specifically on solubility and speciation of fission products in uranium mononitride, and their effect on the physical properties of the fuel such as thermal expansion.