Prospects for Fuel Element of High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor

Helium outlet temperature of very-high-temperature reactor, one of the main candidates for the Generation Ⅳ Nuclear Energy System, will be higher than 1 000 ℃. The higher power of single hightemperature gas-cooled reactor and higher fuel burn up can reduce power generation cost. In order to meet the requirements mentioned above, some materials and performance of modern LEU TRISO particles should be improved. This paper introduces the R&D activities to improve HTR fuel performance, including ZrC layer instead of SiC layer in coated particles, UCO kernel instead of UO₂ kernel and measures to reduce the failure fraction of coated fuel particles.