FAST-IN-FUELS : Fresh Acceleration Strategies of characterization, manufacturing and simulation Techniques for Innovative Nuclear Fuels

Pilote : Carole VALOT

CEA

Keywords : Discovery; Materials; Nuclear Fuels; Ceramics, Numerical design; Additive manufacturing; Characterization; Modelling, simulation-experiments coupling; Properties; Machine learning; Combinatorial approach; Material experimental platforms

The production of low-carbon energy is a priority to limit the impact of climate change, and our society must rely on a competitive energy mix with renewable and nuclear energies. The acceleration of the discovery of innovative and sustainable materials for nuclear fuel is at the heart of this strategy. The challenges are to discover materials permitting: i) increased flexibility of nuclear reactors, ii) enhanced performance and safety, iii) resource optimization and material recycling and iv) answering to advanced reactors specifications.

The FAST-IN-FUELS project has the ambition to contribute to meeting these challenges and fits fully into the DIADEM objectives for an accelerated discovery of nuclear fuel materials. Its innovative nature is the implementation, at the various stages of nuclear fuel R&D, of demonstration of acceleration approaches that have been deployed very rarely, if ever, on these materials and should eventually allow increasing our innovation capacity. It involves an interdisciplinary consortium (CEA/DES, CEA/DRF, CNRS-IRCER, ECM-IF, CS-LGPM) around the innovation on nuclear fuel materials and these acceleration methods. The project is organized in 5 interconnected technical work-packages and complemented by a sixth one dedicated to Management, Transversality and Dissemination, ensuring the proper interaction between the work-packages as well as the communication and valorization of the project results.

  • WP 1: Acceleration of the exploration of innovative concepts for nuclear fuel materials via numerical design
  • WP 2: Acceleration of the manufacturing of innovative concepts for nuclear fuel materials using Additive Manufacturing
  • WP 3: Accelerating tailored morphology and property control of oxide precursors through millifluidic approach and using nanostructured solvents
  • WP 4: Accelerating design validation with the support of accelerated characterization of nuclear fuels properties on small samples
  • WP 5: Acceleration of the assessment of nuclear fuel properties using machine learning.
  • WP 6: Management, transversality, dissemination, education and training

The project aims at having a significant contribution to Training through Research with the recruitment of 4 postdoctoral researchers or doctoral students and future materials and processes engineers as interns. Distributed in the various work-packages of the project and co-supervised, by several partners, they will reinforce the interactions within the consortium. Interactions with the DIADEM platforms and other targeted projects will be set-up. CEA/DRF, CEA/DES already involved in 2FAST and FAST-Nano as well as IRCER already involved in RUBIS will facilitate these interactions. WP6 will ensure the proper capitalization and dissemination of results through the publication of peer-reviewed articles and presentation in international conferences. Moreover a workshop and a summer school organized at the end of the project, will the demonstrations and methodologies known to the scientific community, industry actors and safety regulator as well as to young researchers.