WPFC Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE)
Ongoing

Scope

Under the guidance of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Advanced Fuel Cycles (WPFC), the Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE) conducts joint and comparative studies to support the development of innovative fuels (oxide, metal, nitride and carbide fuels, and special mechanical forms), including cladding, for advanced nuclear fuel cycles and Generation IV systems.

The following technical issues are covered by the expert group:

  • Innovative fuel fabrication techniques
  • Irradiation performance of innovative fuels (including advanced clad materials)
  • Characterisation and post-irradiation examination methods
  • Predictive models/codes for the behaviour and performance of innovative fuels
  • Phenomenological experiments in support of model development or validation
  • Properties (thermo-physical) of fuels and cladding

Both driver fuels (i.e. uranium or uranium-plutonium fuels) and for minor actinide (MA) transmutation are considered.

Objectives

R&D on innovative fuels

  • Generate status reports on various fuel technologies
  • Qualify methodologies (TRL requirements and metrics)
  • Develop a process to increase the technology readiness level for various technologies
  • Study the needs for fuel qualification and code validation
  • List R&D activities needed to advance fuel qualification
  • Undertake scientific and technology watch on experimental results (post-irradiation examination, etc.)

Irradiation results and benchmark with fuel performance codes

  • Share irradiation data
  • Perform code-to-code, code-to-experiment benchmark studies on fuel behaviour under normal and off-normal conditions
  • Define and propose standard benchmark cases for fuel performance codes
  • Define experimental benchmarks as well as phenomenological tests to compare characterisation and Post-irradiation examination (PIE) techniques and results
  • Compile an experimental database

Fuel Properties

  • Identify properties needed for fuel performance codes
  • Share data on each fuel property (literature and experimental data)
  • Analyse and recommend for each property, the law, the application domain and associated uncertainty
  • Develop a database on fuel properties (thermo-physical)

Links with other NEA working groups and international organisations

The expert group liaises closely with other NEA bodies, in particular, the Working Party on Scientific Issues and Uncertainty Analysis of Reactor Systems (WPRS) - and within it the Expert Group on Reactor Fuel Performance (EGRFP) and the Expert Group on Reactors Multi-Physics (EGMUP) - and the Working Party on Multi-scale Modelling of Fuels and Structural Materials for Nuclear Systems (WPMM), to ensure the respective work programmes are complementary, to provide advice and support as required and to undertake joint work as appropriate. In addition, the expert group works in co-operation with other international organisations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission (EC).

Publications and reports
2
results
Structure

Meetings

The information on the group meetings from 2008 to date can be found in the members' area below.

Members' working area

The EGIFE protected area is now hosted on MyNEA SharePoint

Please follow these steps to connect to SharePoint:

  • Enter your email address and your NEA password (password reminder).
  • Select ‘MyNEA Access Authentication Agent 3.1’.
  • You will receive an email with an additional access code. Enter the access code to log in to the page.

The MyNEA End User Guide is available online here: User's guide: myNEA

Contact

WPFC Secretariat

Activities
7
results