AFCI Fuel Irradiation Test Plan, Test Specimens AFC-1(AE) and AFC-1F

The U. S. Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) seeks to develop and demonstrate the technologies needed to transmute the long-lived transuranic actinide isotopes contained in spent nuclear fuel into shorter-lived fission products, thereby dramatically decreasing the volume of material requiring disposition and the long-term radiotoxicity and heat load of high-level waste sent to a geologic repository (DOE, 2003). One important component of the technology development is actinide-bearing transmutation fuel forms containing plutonium, neptunium, americium (and possibly curium) isotopes. There are little irradiation performance data available on non-fertile fuel forms, which would maximize the destruction rate of plutonium, and low-fertile (i.e., uranium-bearing) fuel forms, which would support a sustainable nuclear energy option. Initial scoping level irradiation tests on a variety of candidate fuel forms are needed to establish a transmutation fuel form design and evaluate deployment of transmutation fuels.