Coated particle fuel to improve safety, design, economics in water-cooled and gas-cooled reactors

In the context of Inert Matrix Fuels (IMF), coated particles (CP)s may play an important role to reduce the problems connected to the plutonium (Pu) a nd minor actinides stockpiles. In addition, the coatings of the fuel kernel s made of different low and high-density ceramic layers allow a safe contai nment of fission products in operational, accidental and disposal condition s. Pu-based CPs embedded in a ceramic matrix (e.g. graphite, like in IFIP f uel elements) can be judged as a special cercer type. There is a wide varie ty of different coatings and kernel compositions that has not yet been expl ored beyond the HTR development. Thus it can be expected that the CP techno logy can be applied to other reactor systems, too. For getting full benefit of the fission product retention capability of the CPs, not only the parti cle design but also the core geometry as well as power densities etc, have to be adopted to each specific requirement. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.