NEA Mandates and Structures

Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE)

Chair(s):	Nathalie CHAUVIN, France	Secretary:	Shahab DABIRAN-ZOHOORY (shahab.dabiran-zohoory@oecd-nea.org)
Member(s):	All NEA member countries^*
	Russia (Suspended*)
	^*Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council.
Full participant(s):	European Commission Under the NEA Statute
Observer(s)(International Organisation):	International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) By agreement
Date of creation:	01 June 2008
End of mandate:	31 March 2026

Mandate (Document reference):

Summary Record of the 6th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 30 April 2008 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2008)2]
Summary Record of the 21st meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee held on 9-11 June 2010 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2010)3]
Summary Record of the 9th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 15 February 2012 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2012)2]
Summary Record of the 12th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 19 February 2014 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2014)2/REV1]
Summary Record of the 27th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee held on 22-24 June 2016 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2016)2]
Summary Record of the 15th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 8 February 2017 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2017)2]
Summary Record of the 17th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 6 February 2019 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2019)1]
Mandates of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle (WPFC) and its Expert Groups [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2019)2]
Summary Record of the 18^th meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle held on 5-6 October 2020 [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2020)35]
Revised Mandate of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Advanced Fuel Cycles (WPFC) for approval under the written procedure [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2020)3]
Mandate of the WPFC Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE) [NEA/SEN/NSC/WPFC(2021)4]
Summary record of the 20th Meeting of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Advanced Fuel Cycles (WPFC) held on 24-25 May 2022, [NEA/NSC/WPFC/M(2023)1]
Summary record of the 6^th Meeting of the Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE) [NEA/NSC/WPFC/M(2023)9]
Mandate of the WPFC Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE) [NEA/NSC/WPFC(2024)5/FINAL]

Mandate (Document extract):

Extract from document [NEA/NSC/WPFC(2024)5/FINAL]

Background

As a result of the prioritisation effort in 2020, a reorganisation of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) activities was performed under the guidance of the NSC Bureau. This has resulted in the change of denomination and scope of the Working Party and the Expert Group to, respectively, the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Advanced Fuel Cycles (WPFC) and the Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE).

Scope

Under the guidance of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) and the mandate of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of Advanced Fuel Cycles (WPFC), the objective of the Expert Group on Innovative Fuel Elements (EGIFE) is to conduct joint and comparative studies to identify technical issues and support the development of innovative fuels that can be implemented in advanced nuclear fuel cycles.

The scope of the EGIFE covers the technical issues associated with the development of innovative fuels (oxide, metal, nitride and carbide fuels, and special mechanical forms), including cladding, targeted for use in advanced fuel cycles and Generation IV systems. The fuel types of interest for EGIFE are those foreseen for driver fuels (i.e. uranium or uranium-plutonium fuels) as well as fuels dedicated to minor actinide (MA) transmutation considered for advanced fuel cycles and Generation IV systems.

The following technical issues associated with innovative fuel development are covered by EGIFE:

Innovative fuel fabrication techniques;
Irradiation performance of innovative fuels (including advanced clad materials);
Characterisation and post-irradiation examination methods;
Predictive models/codes for the behaviour and performance of innovative fuels;
Phenomenological experiments in support of model development or validation;
Properties (thermo-physical) of fuels and cladding.

Objectives

The EGIFE will:

1. R&D on innovative fuels

Generate status reports on various fuel technologies;
Qualify methodologies (TRL requirements and metrics);
Develop a process to the technology readiness level for various technologies;
Study the needs for fuel qualification and code validation;
List R&D activities needed to advance fuel qualification;
Establish the link between fuel element design, composition and performances with scenario studies and reprocessing aspects.
Undertake scientific and technology watch on experimental results (post-irradiation examination, etc.).

2. Irradiation results and benchmark with fuel performance codes

Share irradiation data;
Perform code-to-code, code-to-experiment benchmark studies on fuel behaviour under normal and off-normal conditions;
Define and propose standard benchmark cases for fuel performance codes;
Define experimental benchmarks as well as phenomenological tests to compare characterisation and Post-irradiation examination (PIE) techniques and results;
Compile an experimental database.

3. Fuel Properties

Identify properties needed for fuel performance codes;
Share data on each fuel property (literature and experimental data);
Analyse and recommend for each property, the law, the application domain and associated uncertainty;
Develop a database on fuel properties (thermo-physical).

Interactions

The expert group will liaise closely with other NEA bodies, in particular the Working Party on Scientific Issues and Uncertainty Analysis of Reactor Systems (WPRS) and its Expert Group on Reactor Fuel Performance (EGRFP) and the Expert Group on Reactors Multi-Physics (EGMUP); the Working Party on Material Science Issues in Nuclear Fuels and Structural Materials (WPFM), in order to ensure the respective work programmes are complementary, to provide advice and support as required and to undertake joint work as appropriate.

In addition, the expert group will work in co-operation with other international organisations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission (EC).

Deliverables

The deliverables of EGIFE are technical reports, proceedings of seminars/ workshops, state-of-the-art reports, and technical or collective opinion papers, databases, and comparison or benchmark studies. This work will be done in task or benchmark groups, whose work will be organised in a project-like manner with outcomes and milestones. The EGIFE will also organise specialist meetings and workshops to further its objectives. The detailed list of deliverables will be tracked in the semi-annual NSC progress reports.