In an effort to develop better performing nuclear fuels, placement of conductive inserts in nuclear fuel pellets is being considered. Conductive inserts incorporated in the fuel pellets will dissipate heat more efficiently, allowing the fuel to operate at a lower temperature while producing the same amount of power. Calculation results reported in the present paper, show that placing a 6-finned molybdenum insert in a UO₂ pellet will result in an 842 C reduction of the peak fuel temperature. Likewise, placing multiple equidistantly spaced 50 μm thick molybdenum discs in a UO₂ pellet will result in a 995 C reduction of the peak fuel temperature. In both cases, the volume of the insert is limited to 5% of the volume of the pellet. While these results are preliminary in scope, the impact of the reduced peak temperature on expected fuel performance warrants initiation of experimental work that will include fabrication and irradiation of these and similar fuel designs at the Idaho National Laboratory.

为了开发性能更好的核燃料，正在考虑将导电插入物放置在核燃料芯块中。包含在燃料芯块中的导电插件将更有效地散热，从而使燃料能够在较低的温度下运行，同时产生相同的功率。本文报道的计算结果表明，在UO ₂颗粒中放置6翅片钼插件将使峰值燃料温度降低842C。同样，在UO _2中放置多个等距间隔的50μm厚度的钼圆盘颗粒将导致峰值燃料温度降低995C。在这两种情况下，插入物的体积均限制为小丸体积的5％。尽管这些结果只是初步的研究结果，但降低的峰值温度对预期燃料性能的影响需要启动实验工作，其中包括在爱达荷州国家实验室对这些及类似燃料的设计进行制造和辐照。