Framatome’s PROtect Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (EATF) program was selected as a finalist for the prestigious 23rd Global Energy Awards held in New York City, Dec. 10. Touted as the “Oscars” of the global energy industry, the Global Energy Awards bring leaders from around the world from all sectors of the energy industry to celebrate innovations and achievements in solving complex industry problems.
“Representing the work of our Framatome colleagues on this broad energy sector stage was an honor,” said Gary Mignogna, President and CEO of Framatome Inc. “Our innovative technologies are evidence of the technical expertise of our employees, partners and suppliers, and their continued commitment to deliver breakthrough advancements that contribute to the generation of safe, reliable, low-carbon energy.”
Framatome’s PROtect Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel program
When the Accident Tolerant Fuel program was launched by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2012 in response to the events at Fukushima, the nuclear energy industry was challenged to design products that would better withstand the more extreme conditions of such an event occurring at a nuclear power plant.
For nearly 10 years, Framatome teams have pushed forward with new ideas and solutions to tackle the challenge set forth by the DOE:
- Give nuclear power plant operators more “coping time” to manage an accident situation (e.g., an earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, etc.)
- Demonstrate lead test technologies are deployable on or prior to 2022
- Maintain or improve performance during normal operations
Emerging Technology of the Year qualification
Over the past year, Framatome’s Fuel team took a significant step forward with EATF technologies and solutions, for which they were selected as a finalist for the Emerging Technology of the Year in this year’s Global Energy Awards. The first complete fuel assembly comprising of both chromia-enhanced pellets and chromium-coated rods was manufactured, delivered and inserted at a U.S. nuclear power plant in the spring outage of 2021. All totaled, lead EATF fuel rods are operational in four different types of nuclear power plants in the U.S., and one in Europe, which just completed a first complete lifecycle of operations last June. This demonstrates the viability of EATF performance in compliance with the DOE challenge.
Framatome and the DOE recently signed a cooperative agreement for more than $150 million that spans over four years to continue to develop and research accident tolerant fuel technologies.
Framatome is now moving into the industrial phase of the program where large-scale manufacturing and deployment is already underway.