Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1995 International RERTR Meeting

USE OF SILICIDE FUEL IN THE FORD NUCLEAR REACTOR
TO LENGTHEN FUEL ELEMENT LIFETIMES*
(Preliminary Analyses)

M. M. Bretscher and J. L. Snelgrove
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, Illinois 60439-4841 USA

and

R. R. Burn and J. C. Lee
University of Michigan
Phoenix Memorial Laboratory
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2100 USA

Presented at the1995 International Meeting on
Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors
September 18-21, 1995
Paris, France

*Work supported by the US Department of Energy
Office of Nonproliferation and National Security
under Contract No. W-31-109-38-ENG

ABSTRACT

Based on economic considerations, it has been proposed to increase the lifetime of LEU fuel elements in the Ford Nuclear Reactor by raising the U-235 plate loading from 9.3 grams in aluminide (UAlx) fuel to 12.5 grams in silicide (U3Si2) fuel. For a representative core configuration, preliminary neutronic depletion and steady state thermal hydraulic calculations have been performed to investigate core characteristics during the transition from an all-aluminide to an all-silicide core. This paper discusses motivations for this fuel element upgrade, results from the calculations, and conclusions.

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