Abstract Sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) are being proposed for deployment in Canada. Given the potential importance of the implementation of SFR technology within the international community and SFR-SMR technology within Canada as part of a long-term sustainable nuclear energy strategy, it is important and necessary to evaluate the fuel supply and fabrication needs, and the associated issues and options for the implementation of SFR-SMRs in Canada. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of such an assessment that was carried out recently at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL). As part this assessment, a number of different SFR fuel types (from current and historical SFR projects) were reviewed along with their associated fabrication methods and fuel supply options. Cylindrical and metallic fuel slugs for an SFR-SMR can be fabricated using a variety of methods. Injection casting is the most established fabrication method. The different kinds of fuel used in various SFR designs need special facilities to fabricate/produce fuels, and none exist in Canada currently, although expertise in fabrication of fuels relevant to metallic fuel and the MOX fuel still exist at CNL. Based on an assessment of current and near-term future fuel supply and manufacturing capabilities, technical impediments can be overcome in providing the supply of fuel for SFR-SMR design.
Xiao et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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