An approach to transform and accelerate nuclear fuel development and qualification is outlined. The approach exploits advanced modeling and simulation at the outset to inform constituent and system selection and to enable integral fuel performance analyses. Analyses using these tools identify and prioritize the most important fuel performance parameters and phenomena for subsequent targeted characterization with separate-effects tests. Separate-effects testing spans out-of-pile and in-pile tests and is meant to iterate with and inform engineering-scale integral fuel performance analyses throughout the development process. Exercising this cycle in an agile fashion will increase confidence in the integral fuel performance predictions while reducing uncertainties. This process sets the stage for executing a much more limited set of well-defined integral irradiation tests designed to validate engineering-scale fuel performance codes and to confirm the performance and safety of the fuel system under prototypic conditions. This approach will reduce the time for development and qualification of a new fuel system, and it will also reduce associated costs.

概述了一种转变和加速核燃料开发与鉴定的方法。该方法从一开始就利用先进的建模和仿真功能，为组成和系统选择提供信息，并进行整体燃料性能分析。使用这些工具进行的分析可以确定最重要的燃油性能参数和现象并按优先级排序，以便通过单独的效果测试进行随后的目标表征。单独的效果测试涵盖了桩外和桩内测试，旨在在整个开发过程中迭代进行工程规模的整体燃料性能分析并提供相关信息。以敏捷的方式执行此循环将增加对整体燃料性能预测的信心，同时减少不确定性。该过程为执行一组限定更为明确的整体辐照测试奠定了基础，这些辐照测试旨在验证工程规模的燃料性能代码，并在原型条件下确认燃料系统的性能和安全性。这种方法将减少开发和鉴定新燃料系统的时间，还将减少相关成本。