This work was part of a program begun in 2001 to develop advanced nuclear fuels, originally as carriers for plutonium and minor actinides (neptunium, curium, and americium) taken from spent commercial light-water reactors (LWR) so that the plutonium and minor actinides could be ‘burned’ or transmuted in an accelerator or a fast nuclear reactor. A central part of these experiment programs has been the development of advanced fast reactor fuels, because a fast reactor was considered the most efficient vehicle to transmute the actinide waste products, and metallic fuels is a central focus of these tests. An experiment design was developed in which a thermal test reactor, the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), was used to test small fuel pin prototypes, by creating areas in the core shielded by cadmium filters to produce a largely epithermal and fast neutron spectrum environment in which the pins could be irradiated. The results of non-fertile metallic fuel (no uranium) tests are presented here.

Pu-Am-Np-Zr fuels were irradiated to fission densities up to 33 × 10²⁰ fission/cm³ and Pu-239 depletions of up to 39%. The depletions were created by roughly 2/3 by fission and 1/3 by transmutation neutron capture. Up to five fuel ‘rodlets’ were irradiated in three sealed capsules stacked axially in the core, and the peak cladding temperatures ranged from 300°C to 500°C, depending on axial location as those near the core centerline are operating hotter and to higher fission densities. Several post-irradiation examinations (precision gamma scanning and fission gas release) were similar to other historical metal fuel experiments in fast reactors. However, optical metallography indicated that two of the rodlets had breached. The exact reasons are unclear. Due to the design of this irradiation experiment a rodlet breach could have increased the temperature in others in the same capsule by contaminating the thermal gap helium with heavier and less conductive fission product gases. Some of those rodlets showed high amounts of fuel/cladding chemical interaction (FCCI).

这项工作是2001年开始的一项计划的一部分，该计划开发先进的核燃料，该燃料最初是从废弃的商用轻水反应堆（LWR）中获取的and和次act系元素（n，cur和a）的载体，因此that和次act系元素可能会在加速器或快速核反应堆中“燃烧”或trans变。这些实验计划的核心部分是开发先进的快堆燃料，因为快堆被认为是转化act系元素废物的最有效工具，而金属燃料是这些测试的重点。开发了一个实验设计，其中使用了热测试反应堆（高级测试反应堆（ATR））来测试小型燃料销原型，通过在芯中创建被镉过滤器屏蔽的区域，以产生很大的超热和快速中子光谱环境，可以在其中辐照销。此处介绍了非可肥金属燃料（无铀）的测试结果。

Pu-Am-Np-Zr燃料的裂变密度高达33×10 ²⁰裂变/ cm ³Pu-239损耗高达39％。裂变引起的损耗约占2/3，trans变中子捕获引起的损耗约占1/3。在轴向堆放在堆芯中的三个密封胶囊中，最多照射五个燃料“小棒”，并且由于堆芯中心线附近的堆芯工作温度越来越高，峰值包层温度范围从300°C到500°C，具体取决于轴向位置裂变密度。几次辐照后检查（精确的伽马扫描和裂变气体释放）与快堆中的其他历史金属燃料实验相似。但是，光学金相学表明其中两个小棒已经断裂。确切原因尚不清楚。由于该辐照实验的设计，通过用较重且传导性较小的裂变产物气体污染热隙氦气，使小棒破裂可能会使同一胶囊中其他小袋的温度升高。这些小棒中的一些显示出大量的燃料/包层化学相互作用（FCCI）。