MARIOS: Irradiation of UO 2 containing 15% americium at well defined temperature

• Published in: Nuclear engineering and design Vol. 242; pp. 413 - 419
• Main Authors: D’Agata, E., Hania, P.R., Bejaoui, S., Sciolla, C., Wyatt, T., Hannink, M.H.C., Herlet, N., Jankowiak, A., Klaassen, F.C., Bonnerot, J.-M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 2012
• ISSN: 0029-5493; 1872-759X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2011.10.016

► MARIOS is designed to check the behaviour of Minor Actinide Blanket Module concept. ► Main requirement of the experiment is an accurate control of the temperature. ► The swelling and the helium release will be the main output of the experiment. ► A complementary experiment (DIAMINO), will be performed in the next future. Americium is a strong contributor to the long term radiotoxicity of high activity nuclear waste. Transmutation by irradiation in nuclear reactors of long-lived nuclides like 241Am is, therefore, an option for the reduction of radiotoxicity and residual power packages as well as the repository area. The MARIOS irradiation experiment is the latest of a series of experiments on americium transmutation (e.g. EFTTRA-T4, EFTTRA-T4bis, HELIOS). MARIOS experiment is carried out in the framework of the 4-year project FAIRFUELS of the EURATOM 7th Framework Programme (FP7). During the past years of experimental work in the field of transmutation and tests of innovative nuclear fuel containing americium, the release or trapping of helium as well as swelling has shown to be the key issue for the design of such kinds of target. Therefore, the main objective of the MARIOS experiment is to study the in-pile behaviour of UO 2 containing minor actinides (MAs) in order to gain knowledge on the role of the microstructure and of the temperature on the gas release and on fuel swelling. The MARIOS experiment will be conducted in the HFR (high flux reactor) in Petten (The Netherlands) and will start in the beginning of 2011. It has been planned that the experiment will last 11 cycles, corresponding to 11 months. This paper covers the description of the objective of the experiment, as well as a general description of the design of the experiment.