Nuclear fuel qualification: History, current state, and future

Abstract

The qualification of nuclear fuel is the process by which a fuel is certified for use within a reactor design. This process involves massive technical and procedural coordination across multiple private and public institutions with long project completion timelines. The current frameworks published in literature do not address the roles of private reactor developers in the qualification process, nor the regulatory requirements that form the background for fuel qualification. These roles and requirements are not static and have evolved throughout the development of the commercial nuclear industry. UO₂ fuel, the only fuel considered fully qualified today, achieved its status in large part due to its early selection and rapid deployment under a still developing regulatory landscape. Today, fuel qualification efforts must operate within modern regulatory realities, which will require extensive testing and model development. Building on the existing fuel qualification frameworks, we define the optimal roles of the parties involved with fuel qualification. We also suggest viewing experimental efforts through a data-centric perspective in which parallel improvements can be made in collection, processing, and storage to facilitate quicker qualification timelines. These efforts then promote advanced modeling efforts, such as mechanistic modeling and digital twin development.