• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.39 no.5
• /
• pp.603-616
• /
• 2007

Roy Huddle, having invented the coated particle in Harwell 1957, stated in the early 1970s that we know now everything about particles and coatings and should be going over to deal with other problems. This was on the occasion of the Dragon fuel performance information meeting London 1973: How wrong a genius be! It took until 1978 that really good particles were made in Germany, then during the Japanese HTTR production in the 1990s and finally the Chinese 2000-2001 campaign for HTR-10. Here, we present a review of history and present status. Today, good fuel is measured by different standards from the seventies: where $9*10^{-4}$ initial free heavy metal fraction was typical for early AVR carbide fuel and $3*10^{-4}$ initial free heavy metal fraction was acceptable for oxide fuel in THTR, we insist on values more than an order of magnitude below this value today. Half a percent of particle failure at the end-of-irradiation, another ancient standard, is not even acceptable today, even for the most severe accidents. While legislation and licensing has not changed, one of the reasons we insist on these improvements is the preference for passive systems rather than active controls of earlier times. After renewed HTGR interest, we are reporting about the start of new or reactivated coated particle work in several parts of the world, considering the aspects of designs/ traditional and new materials, manufacturing technologies/ quality control quality assurance, irradiation and accident performance, modeling and performance predictions, and fuel cycle aspects and spent fuel treatment. In very general terms, the coated particle should be strong, reliable, retentive, and affordable. These properties have to be quantified and will be eventually optimized for a specific application system. Results obtained so far indicate that the same particle can be used for steam cycle applications with $700-750^{\circ}C$ helium coolant gas exit, for gas turbine applications at $850-900^{\circ}C$ and for process heat/hydrogen generation applications with $950^{\circ}C$ outlet temperatures. There is a clear set of standards for modem high quality fuel in terms of low levels of heavy metal contamination, manufacture-induced particle defects during fuel body and fuel element making, irradiation/accident induced particle failures and limits on fission product release from intact particles. While gas-cooled reactor design is still open-ended with blocks for the prismatic and spherical fuel elements for the pebble-bed design, there is near worldwide agreement on high quality fuel: a $500{\mu}m$ diameter $UO_2$ kernel of 10% enrichment is surrounded by a $100{\mu}m$ thick sacrificial buffer layer to be followed by a dense inner pyrocarbon layer, a high quality silicon carbide layer of $35{\mu}m$ thickness and theoretical density and another outer pyrocarbon layer. Good performance has been demonstrated both under operational and under accident conditions, i.e. to 10% FIMA and maximum $1600^{\circ}C$ afterwards. And it is the wide-ranging demonstration experience that makes this particle superior. Recommendations are made for further work: 1. Generation of data for presently manufactured materials, e.g. SiC strength and strength distribution, PyC creep and shrinkage and many more material data sets. 2. Renewed start of irradiation and accident testing of modem coated particle fuel. 3. Analysis of existing and newly created data with a view to demonstrate satisfactory performance at burnups beyond 10% FIMA and complete fission product retention even in accidents that go beyond $1600^{\circ}C$ for a short period of time. This work should proceed at both national and international level.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.59-74
• /
• 2012

Buffer solubility and protein fractionation were evaluated from the hays (timothy, alfalfa and klein) and straws (tall fescue and rice), and $In$ $vitro$ trial was conducted to examine the effect of buffer extraction on fermentation characteristics, degradability and gas ($CO_2$ and $CH_4$) production. Buffer soluble protein (SP) content and A fraction in total protein were highest in alfalfa hay as 61% and 41.77%, respectively while lowest in rice straw (42.8% and 19.78%, respectively). No difference was observed in B1 fraction among forages but B2 fraction was slightly increased in klein hay (12.34%) and tall fescue straw (10.05%) compared with other forages (6.34~8.85%). B3 fraction of tall fescue was highest as 38.49% without difference among other forages while C fraction was highest in rice straw. pH in incubation solution was higher in all forages after extraction than before extraction at 3h (P<0.01) and 6h (P<0.05), and pH from hays of timothy and alfalfa was higher than the other forages at 6h (P<0.05) and 12h (P<0.001). Regardless of extraction, ammonia-N concentration from alfalfa hay was increased at all incubation times and extraction effect was appeared only at 3h incubation time (P<0.01). Total VFA concentration from alfalfa hay was highest up to 24h incubation while those from tall fescue straw and rice straw were lowest. Buffer extraction decreased (P<0.01~P<0.001) the total VFA concentration. Acetic acid proportion was increased (P<0.001) before extraction of forages but no difference was found between forages. Propionic acid($C_3$) proportion was also increased(P<0.001) before extraction in all forages than in straws at 3h, 24h and 48h incubations, and $C_3$ from hays were mostly higher (P<0.05) than from straws. Butyric acid proportion, however, was not affected by extraction at most incubation times. Parameter 'a' regarding to the dry matter (DM) degradation was increase (P<0.001) in all forages before extraction, and was decreased (P<0.05) in tall fescue straw and rice straw compared with hays. Parameter 'b' was also increased (P<0.001) before extraction but no difference was found between forages. Effective degradability of DM (EDDM) was higher (P<0.001) before extraction in most forages except for rice straw. Buffer extraction decreased (P<0.05) all parameters (a, b, and c) regrading to the crude protein (CP) degradation but no difference was found between forages. Effective degradation of CP (EDCP) was lower (P<0.05) in straws than in hays. Parameters 'a' and 'b' regarding to the NDF degradation (P<0.01) and effective degradability of NDF (EDNDF, P<0.001) were also higher in forages before extraction than after extraction but no difference was found between forages. Buffer extraction reduced (P<0.05~P<0.001) $CO_2$ production from all the forages uo to 24h incubation and its production was greater (P<0.05~P<0.01) from hays than straws. Methane ($CH_4$) production was also greater (P<0.01~P<0.001) in all forages at all incubation times, and its production was greater (P<0.05) from hays than from straws at most incubation times. Based on the results of the current study, it can be concluded that buffer solubility and CP fractionation might be closely related with $In$ $vitro$ VFA concentration, degradability and gas ($CO_2$ and $CH_4$) production. Thus, measurement of buffer solubility and protein fractionation of forages might be useful to improve TMR availability in the ruminants.