NEA Mandates and Structures
Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE)
| Chair(s): |
Nathalie CHAUVIN, France
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Secretary: |
Gabriele GRASSI
(gabriele.grassi@oecd-nea.org)
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| Member(s): | All NEA member countries* |
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| Russia (Suspended*) |
| *Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council. |
| Full participant(s): |
European Commission
Under the NEA Statute
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| Observer(s)(International Organisation): |
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
By agreement
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| Date of creation: | 01 June 2008 |
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| End of mandate: | 31 March 2024 |
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Mandate (Document reference):
- Summary Record of the 6th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 30 April 2018 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2008)2]
- Summary Record of the 21st meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee held on 9-11 June 2010 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2010)3]
- Summary Record of the 9th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 15 February 2012 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2012)2]
- Summary Record of the 12th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 19 February 2014 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2014)2/REV1]
- Summary Record of the 27th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee held on 22-24 June 2016 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2016)2]
- Summary Record of the 15th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 8 February 2017 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2017)2]
- Summary Record of the 17th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 6 February 2019 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2019)1]
- Mandates of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle (WPFC) and its Expert Groups [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2019)2]
- Summary Record of the 18th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 5-6 October 2020 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2020)35]
- Revised Mandate of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Advanced Fuel Cycles (WPFC) for approval under the written procedure [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2020)3]
- Mandate of the WPFC Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE) [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2021)4]
Mandate (Document extract):
Extract from document [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2021)4]
Background
As a result of the prioritisation effort, a reorganisation of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) activities was performed under the guidance of the NSC Bureau. This has resulted in the change of denomination and scope of the Working Party and the Expert Group to, respectively, the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Advanced Fuel Cycles (WPFC) and the Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE).
Scope
Under the guidance of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) and the mandate of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Advanced Fuel Cycles (WPFC), the objective of the Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE) is to conduct joint and comparative studies to identify technical issues and support the development of innovative fuels that can be implemented in advanced nuclear fuel cycles.
The scope of the expert group covers the technical issues associated with the development of innovative fuels (oxide, metal, nitride and carbide fuels, and special mechanical forms), including cladding, targeted for use in advanced fuel cycles and Generation IV systems. The fuel types of interest for EGIFE are those foreseen for driver fuels (i.e. uranium or uranium-plutonium fuels) as well as fuels dedicated to minor actinide (MA) transmutation considered for advanced fuel cycles and Generation IV systems.
The following technical issues associated with innovative fuel development 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
Objectives
1. R&D on innovative fuels
- Generate status reports on various fuel technologies
- Qualify methodologies (TRL requirements and metrics)
- Develop a process to 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.)
2. 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
3. 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)
Interactions
The expert group will liaise 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), the Working Party on Material Science Issues in Nuclear Fuels and Structural Materials (WPMM)1, in order 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 will work in co-operation with other international organisations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission (EC).
Deliverables
The deliverables of the EGIFE will be the following:
- Report on benchmark on fuel performance codes for fast reactors (Phase 1 and Phase 2)
- Preliminary recommendations on fuel properties
- Database on fuel properties (thermo-physical): development of the structure and contents
1 The name and scope of this working party will be modified in 2021.
