Lightbridge Corporation has announced the start of irradiation testing of its enriched uranium-zirconium alloy fuel material samples in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in the USA. This is a significant step forward in its fuel development and testing programme conducted under its Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with INL.
Enriched uranium-zirconium alloy fuel material samples have been inserted in the ATR, commencing an irradiation testing campaign designed to collect key material performance data for the Lightbridge fuel design. The irradiation testing campaign is expected to provide essential data on the fuel alloy’s microstructural evolution, thermal conductivity properties, and other data as a function of burnup that are critical to the qualification and licensing of Lightbridge Fuel for future commercial use.
During the irradiation testing campaign, some irradiated samples will be removed at various burnup levels to undergo post-irradiation examination at INL to assess the fuel alloy’s performance, supporting further design qualification for licensing report submissions.
“Commencement of irradiation testing of Lightbridge’s enriched uranium-zirconium alloy samples at the ATR represents a major achievement for both INL and Lightbridge,” said Dr. Jess Gehin, Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear Science & Technology at INL. “The ATR provides a world-class platform for evaluating advanced nuclear materials under realistic conditions, and we look forward to analysing the results of this important experiment.”
Dr. Scott Holcombe, Vice President of Engineering at Lightbridge, stated, “The start of capsule irradiation testing marks a pivotal step in demonstrating the performance of Lightbridge Fuel. The data generated in this phase will help us validate some key thermo-mechanical properties of our fuel alloy and how these properties vary with irradiation, moving us closer toward commercial deployment of Lightbridge Fuel in existing and new water-cooled reactors.”
