2nd ASGARD International Seminar
This year the 2nd ASGARD International Seminar will be embedded in TopFuel 2015. In two technical sessions on Wednesday 16 September from 11.00 – 13.00 and from 13.50 – 15.50 the ASGARD Project and the PELGRIMM Project will present an updated overview on their work.
Participation in those two sessions is open to all TopFuel 2015 delegates and is included in the TopFuel 2015 registration fee.
What is the ASGARD Project?
The main focus of ASGARD (2012 - 2015) lies on the investigation of fuels for fast Generation IV reactors. The scope of the project is to bridge existing knowledge in nuclear fuel manufacturing with existing knowledge in separation techniques used for waste treatment and recovery and to investigate the production and recyclability of advanced nuclear fuels for the next generation of nuclear reactors. The targeted result of the project itself is to interconnect the recycling of the nuclear fuel to the fabrication of new nuclear fuel. Oxide, nitride and carbide fuels are addressed with focus on dissolution, reprocessing and fabrication behaviour.
What is the PELGRIMM Project?
PELGRIMM is a 4 year project (2012-2015), addressing Minor-Actinide (MA) bearing fuel developments for Generation IV Fast Reactor Systems to support the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) of the European Sustainable Nuclear Energy –Technology Platform (SNE-TP). Both options, MA homogeneous recycle in driver fuels with MA content at a few percent and heterogeneous recycle on UO2 fuels bearing high MA contents, located in the radial core blanket, are considered. Two fuel forms (pellet and spherepac) are under investigation. Indeed, spherepac technology (that leads to production of beads that can be directly loaded in pins) is attractive regarding MA-bearing fuels as it would lead to a significant simplification of the fabrication process and to a better accommodation of solid swelling (compared to pellets) under irradiation. These developments extend Europe’s leading role in this area.
