Metallic uranium-transuranic (U-TRU) fuels are promising candidates for advanced nuclear reactors, offering significant potential to reduce long-lived radiotoxic waste and close the nuclear fuel cycle. Qualification of these fuels for commercial deployment remains a challenge due to limited prototypic irradiation data and limited maturity of minor actinide material models. This study leverages detailed irradiation data and post-irradiation examination (PIE) results from the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) X501 experiment to develop and validate a high-fidelity fuel performance model using the BISON finite-element code, integrated with the Fuels Irradiation and Physics Database. To evaluate the influence of different minor-actinide approximations, three U-TRU modeling cases were implemented that respectively treated neptunium and americium as (A) plutonium, (B) uranium and zirconium, and (C) uranium. These cases enable assessment of how different thermophysical representations affect fuel performance predictions on an engineering scale. Key BISON input parameters affecting fuel performance underwent a multi-stage calibration. Initially, these parameters were adjusted to match PIE measurements from the minor actinide-bearing X501 pins, G582 and G591. As the analysis progressed and similarities between U-TRU and ternary fuels became clearer, the model was further refined using a broader set of historical PIE data from various ternary fuel pins irradiated in EBR-II. This comprehensive calibration strategy produced predictions in agreement with experimental observations, demonstrating robust predictive capability across varied alloy compositions and smeared densities. The findings support the argument that existing ternary fuel models in BISON can reasonably approximate the behavior of minor actinide-bearing fuels under fast reactor conditions. This study underscores the viability of utilizing limited but high-quality experimental data, such as X501 PIE, to accelerate qualification and licensing of minor actinide-bearing metallic fuels, supporting the deployment of sustainable nuclear fuel recycling technologies.
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