Autonomous Inspection for Responsive and Sustainable Nuclear Fuel Manufacture (AIRS-NFM)

响应性和可持续核燃料制造的自主检查（AIRS-NFM）

• 批准号: EP/V051059/1
• 负责人: Malcolm Joyce
• 金额: $ 191.05万
• 依托单位: Lancaster University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FV051059%2F1
• 关键词: Autonomous; Inspection; Responsive; Sustainable; Nuclear

Nuclear energy, derived from splitting the atom, is an important component of current UK electricity generation because it is low carbon and it is not affected by the weather. In order for the UK to reach its commitment for net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, nuclear power offers a way to offset the UK's previous reliance on electricity production by burning of coal and gas, whilst underpinning periods when renewable sources of electricity (off-shore wind and solar) are interrupted.The fuel from which nuclear energy is derived currently is made from uranium. Fuel for all but one of the UK's existing nuclear power stations is manufactured at Westinghouse Springfields Fuels Ltd., near Preston. However, in the next 10 years, all of these power stations are scheduled to close. In order to offset this loss in low-carbon electricity, new reactor designs are being considered because the requirements of nuclear power have changed since the current generation of operating reactors were built in the 1960s-1980s: modular designs are favoured now in place of large reactors built at site, that will be easier and cheaper to build, and which provide more flexibility over the power that they provide. In the short-term, the UK is considering small modular reactors 'SMRs', that are smaller versions of a long-established design, and advanced modular reactors 'AMRs', which will operate at higher efficiencies at higher temperatures. The UK is well-placed to compete for the manufacture of the fuel for these new reactors because Springfields has more flexibility concerning the range in uranium composition open to it than many of its competitors, but it will need to be competitive on cost.A principal opportunity to reduce the cost of nuclear fuel manufacture is to reduce the likelihood that fuel produced in the factory is not compliant with customer requirements. When this happens, the fuel has to be recycled through the process, unnecessary energy is consumed in recycling it, time is lost and waste is generated. In this research we shall study the uranium manufacturing process in the UK with the aim to investigate whether it can be made responsive to change in order to increase its efficiency and cost effectiveness. We have selected two examples where unexpected change can undermine compliance: uranium enrichment and pellet quality.Uranium enrichment concerns the proportion of 235U present in the fuel; 235U is the isotope that is responsible for most of the energy that is generated. It is a key component of the fuel specification and, because enrichment is not constant across a reactor core, the enrichment of each pellet matters. Enrichment is influenced by changes in the feedstock (uranium hexafluoride) and by faults that might evolve in the manufacturing machinery. We will explore whether the most advanced ways of detecting gamma rays available today can be employed to yield a measurement of enrichment at various points in the process. We will explore whether these measurements can be used to constitute data to be used to adjust the process to avert a change in enrichment, so that the effect on the enrichment of a given pellet can be minimised and hence the need for a whole batch to be recycled is removed.Pellet quality is premised on several factors: one is whether it is cracked or not. Pellets are checked by a variety of means including manually by experts at the end of the manufacturing process. At this stage microscopic cracks can be present occurring after the pellets are baked implying that they could be weakened beyond what is suitable for use in a reactor or that their thermal conductivity may not be uniform etc. We shall explore the use of hyperspectral and high-resolution imaging for this purpose, with the aim of deriving data for use in rendering the process responsive, so that, for example, an evolving flaw in a machine that is causing cracking can be removed before a whole batch is affected.

核能源自原子分裂，是当前英国发电的重要组成部分，因为它低碳且不受天气影响。为了让英国实现到 2050 年二氧化碳净零排放的承诺，核电提供了一种方法来抵消英国以前对燃烧煤炭和天然气发电的依赖，同时支撑可再生能源电力（关闭）的时期。 -岸上风能和太阳能）被中断。目前核能的燃料是由铀制成的。除一座英国现有核电站外，所有核电站的燃料均由普雷斯顿附近的西屋斯普林菲尔德燃料有限公司生产。然而，在未来10年内，所有这些发电站都计划关闭。为了抵消低碳电力的损失，人们正在考虑新的反应堆设计，因为自 20 世纪 60 年代至 80 年代建造当前一代运行反应堆以来，核电的要求已经发生了变化：模块化设计现在取代大型反应堆受到青睐。现场建造的反应堆，建造起来会更容易、更便宜，并且在提供电力方面提供更大的灵活性。短期内，英国正在考虑小型模块化反应堆“SMR”，这是长期设计的较小版本，以及先进的模块化反应堆“AMR”，它将在更高的温度下以更高的效率运行。英国在这些新反应堆燃料制造方面处于有利地位，因为斯普林菲尔德在铀成分范围方面比许多竞争对手拥有更大的灵活性，但它需要在成本上具有竞争力。降低核燃料制造成本的机会是减少工厂生产的燃料不符合客户要求的可能性。当这种情况发生时，燃料必须通过该过程进行回收，在回收过程中会消耗不必要的能量，浪费时间并产生废物。在这项研究中，我们将研究英国的铀制造过程，目的是调查它是否可以响应变化，以提高其效率和成本效益。我们选择了两个例子，其中意外变化可能会破坏合规性：铀浓缩和颗粒质量。铀浓缩涉及燃料中 235U 的比例； 235U 是产生大部分能量的同位素。它是燃料规格的关键组成部分，并且由于反应堆堆芯的浓缩度不是恒定的，因此每个颗粒的浓缩度都很重要。浓缩受到原料（六氟化铀）变化和制造机械中可能出现的故障的影响。我们将探讨是否可以采用当今最先进的伽马射线检测方法来测量过程中各个点的富集度。我们将探讨是否可以使用这些测量结果来构成数据，用于调整过程以避免富集变化，从而可以最大限度地减少对给定颗粒富集的影响，从而无需对整个批次进行调整。颗粒质量取决于几个因素：一是是否有裂纹。颗粒通过多种方式进行检查，包括在制造过程结束时由专家​​进行手动检查。在这个阶段，颗粒烘烤后可能会出现微观裂纹，这意味着它们的强度可能会减弱，超出了反应器的适用范围，或者它们的导热率可能不均匀等。我们将探索使用高光谱和高光谱技术用于此目的的分辨率成像，目的是导出用于渲染过程响应的数据，以便，例如，可以在整个批次受到影响之前消除机器中导致破裂的不断发展的缺陷。

项目成果

Super Resolution Hyperspectral Imaging based Automated Inspection of Nuclear Fuel Pellets

基于超分辨率高光谱成像的核燃料芯块自动检测

• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Zabalza, J.

Passive, non-destructive enrichment measurement of sintered UO2 fuel pellets

烧结 UO2 燃料芯块的被动、非破坏性富集测量

• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Parker, A. J.

Wireless information transfer with fast neutrons

利用快中子进行无线信息传输

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2021.165946
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
• 作者: Joyce M

Robust Data Driven Analysis for Electricity Theft Attack-Resilient Power Grid

• DOI: 10.1109/tpwrs.2022.3162391
• 发表时间: 2023-01
• 期刊: IEEE Transactions on Power Systems
• 影响因子: 6.6
• 作者: I. Khan;Nadeem Javaid;James Taylor;Xiandong Ma

Digital twin challenges and opportunities for nuclear fuel manufacturing applications

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2024.113013
• 发表时间: 2024-04
• 期刊: Nuclear Engineering and Design
• 影响因子: 1.7
• 作者: M. Bandala;P. Chard;N. Cockbain;David Dunphy;D. Eaves;Daniel Hutchinson;Darren Lee;Xiandong Ma-Xian