TRIGA hexagonal fuel element development

General Atomics has continued development of a fuel element using a hexagonal array of fuel pins. This element builds on existing, TRIGA fuel technology by using the well-proven uranium-zirconium hydride fuel material in 13.8 mm OD fuel pins. The use of a hexagonal fuel pin array instead of a square array permits the core design to have a higher power density and higher neutron flux per watt. For example, a 10 MW reactor can provide a peak in-core thermal neutron flux of 3x1014n/cm2-s and a thermal flux at the beam port entrance greater than 1014n/cm2-s. (author)