Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation Improves Nuclear Fuel Production Process

Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) announced that a technology breakthrough in its patented Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated (FCM) fuel allows a fuel geometry. The fully ceramic micro-encapsulated fuel (FCM) further encases TRISO particles in silicon carbide, ensuring that the helium coolant remains free from contamination.

The technology breakthrough in fuel production results in both higher power and increased safety, enabling its Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR) to produce three times more power.

The micro-modular reactor (MMR) has previously been touted as a 15 MW thermal, 5 MW electrical high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, using TRISO (tristructural isotropic) fuel in prismatic graphite blocks and with a sealed, transportable core. The graphite blocks contain stacks of FCM fuel pellets. The helium-cooled reactor is fueled once for its 20-year lifetime.

After strategic upgrading of the standard design, the MMR can flexibly work with either high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel (with 19.75% enrichment) or low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel (with 9.9% enrichment) and operate at various power levels from 10 MW (3.3 MW · h) to 45 MW (15 MW · h).