Self-sufficient nuclear fuel technology development and applications

Highlights: ► Three kinds of nuclear fuel technology development procedures are provided. ► Detailed activities for nuclear fuel and cladding material developments are described. ► Main fuel failure causes for PWRs in Korea and countermeasures are provided. - Abstract: A cutting-edge nuclear fuel technology in Korea has been acquired through four stepwise nuclear fuel technology development phases starting from the 1970s that may include a fuel import phase, a turnkey fuel technology transfer phase, a fuel technology joint-development phase and a self-sufficient fuel technology development phase. The self-sufficient fuel technology development procedures have been applied for developing four kinds of advanced PWR fuels such as PLUS7, 16ACE7, 17ACE7 and HIPER, an advanced cladding material of HANA and various fuel performance analysis computer codes. The PLUS7, 16ACE7 and 17ACE7 fuels have already been implemented on a batch scale in the PWRs operating in Korea. Based on the forty years' operation experience of the PWRs in Korea and various fuel verification/validation test databases acquired from the advanced fuel developments, main fuel failure causes observed in the PWRs seem to be grid-to-rod fretting wear, debris-induced wear and accelerated Zry-4 cladding corrosion. Outstanding countermeasures against such main fuel failures are proposed to accomplish an ultimate goal of zero fuel defects for the aforementioned advanced fuels.