$4.5M from Exelon funds research on advanced nuclear fuel cladding coatings
Assistant professor of nuclear science and engineering Michael Short and collaborators — professors Bilge Yildiz, Matteo Bucci, and Evelyn Wang, as well as the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory and the Westinghouse Electric Company — have received $4.5 million in funding from Exelon to support research that could transform the performance of fuel rod outer layers, known as cladding, in light water reactors (LWRs). Four major problems negatively affect the safe and reliable operation of LWR fuel cladding: fretting and wear from grid-to-rod-fretting (GTRF) and foreign material; the buildup of porous corrosion deposits known as “crud”; hydrogen absorption; and boiling crisis. Fretting can wear through the fuel cladding, while crud and hydrogen absorption can lead to corrosion-based fuel failure, respectively. Finally, a “boiling crisis” is when the normally bubbly mode of coolant boiling, called sub-cooled nucleate boiling, transitions to film boiling, insulating the fuel with a layer of steam and worsening heat...