Performance and Behaviour of Metallic Nuclear Fuels and Cladding Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Metals, alloys and intermetallics are of high interest to the nuclear industry due to their extensive use in nuclear fuel assemblies. The development of novel metallic nuclear fuels, fuel claddings and coating materials is driving the deployment of accident tolerant fuel (ATF) technology into the current generation of nuclear power plants. In addition, new high-density metallic fuels (HDFs) offer the possibility of replacing highly enriched uranium fuel (HEU), which is currently used in test reactors, with lower-enriched fuels with the aim of reducing proliferation risks. However, through their deployment, these novel metallic fuels, cladding and coating materials may be exposed to high levels of radiation damage and burnup, high temperature environments and oxidative or corrosive atmospheres. This can occur during normal operation or in off-normal accident scenarios, particularly in water-cooled nuclear reactors. The design criteria for these ATF and HDF assemblies led to recent advances in: 

• The development of new metallic uranium fuels, cladding materials and coating barriers;
• The study of radiation damage degradation mechanisms on the materials’ microstructures and properties;
• High-temperature mechanical and thermophysical characterisation
• The development of an in-depth understanding of their oxidation behaviour under a variety of conditions - such as air and steam oxidation

All of the above are required to predict the in-service behaviour of future nuclear fuel assemblies. 

In this Special Issue of Metals, we encourage contributions that report on any of these areas, as well as submissions that report on any recent developments towards understanding the behaviour of metallic nuclear fuels and cladding materials for their application in current or advanced nuclear technologies.

Dr. Robert W. Harrison
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Metals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• nuclear fuel
• metallic nuclear fuel
• fuel cladding
• radiation damage
• oxidation
• high temperature
• kinetics
• corrosion mechanisms