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TRIGA International begins fabricating MARVEL fuel

Thursday, 8 February 2024

The Framatome-General Atomics joint venture has begun fabricating the fuel for the US Department of Energy's MARVEL microreactor, with delivery of the first shipment of fuel expected in spring 2025.

TRIGA International begins fabricating MARVEL fuel — A rendering of the MARVEL microreactor (Image: INL)

MARVEL - a sodium-potassium-cooled microreactor designed to generate 85 KW of thermal energy - is to be built inside the Transient Reactor Test Facility at Idaho National Laboratory where it will be used to advance new reactor technologies. It will be one of the first new reactors to be built at the lab in more than four decades, and is expected to be online in 2027, with future plans to connect it to a microgrid.

The fuel the reactor will use is similar to the uranium-zirconium hydride fuel used in the TRIGA pool-type research reactors that are in operation at various universities around the world. TRIGA International is the only supplier of fuel for those reactors.

John Jackson, the national technical director for DOE's microreactor programme, said securing the fuel for the MARVEL project addressed a primary technical challenge. "The initiation of fuel fabrication represents another tangible step toward making this exciting test platform a reality," he said.

TRIGA International was awarded a contract worth about USD8.4 million late last year to produce 37 fuel elements for the MARVEL project. It started the fabrication process at its facility in Romans, France, late last month, the DOE said.

"Securing the fuel for the MARVEL microreactor project addresses a primary technical challenge,” said John Jackson, the national technical director for DOE's microreactor programme. "The initiation of fuel fabrication represents another tangible step toward making this exciting test platform a reality."

A preliminary safety analysis report for MARVEL will be submitted for review later this year as part of the DOE authorisation process, and tests are also under way on a full-scale, non-electric prototype of the reactor - the primary coolant apparatus test, or PCAT - to provide data on the system’s coolant flow and power generation to ensure the reactor will perform as expected. PCAT has been installed at Creative Engineers Inc's manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania.