CEB January Lecture

Improving Fission Fuels: The role of thermal conductivity

Presented by: Ed Darnborough (University of Oxford)

High thermal conductivity of fuel is of paramount importance for the efficiency and safety of nuclear fission reactors. Uranium dioxide, used in civil reactors worldwide, is a poor conductor of heat and the thermal conductivity reduces throughout fuel 'burn-up'.

Most heat in ceramics like UO2 is conducted by phonons, which are disrupted as radiation damage changes the periodic nature of the material. This means as time goes on less of the energy from each fission is making it to electricity and the grid, reducing efficiency. This is also a safety issue for loss of coolant like in the Fukushima accident. To try and tackle these issues, new fuels are being developed which have better thermal conductivity.

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  • Thu 31 Jan 2019
  • Thu 31 Jan 2019
  • Ridgeway House, Rutherfold Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus, Didcot