Li, Jade and Murphy, Samuel (2024) Atomically Entangled Futures: the Role of Accident Tolerant Fuels. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.
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Abstract
Nuclear power has played a crucial role in the past century, ensuring energy security due to its reliability and supporting the response to the ongoing climate crisis. However, certain events have forced the nuclear industry to reflect on how best to improve their technologies. The Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011 spurred the industry to research and develop Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATFs)—fuels that have increased safety margins in accident scenarios where the coolant has been lost. One such ATF is uranium nitride (UN), the properties of which are relatively unexplored. The thermophysical properties of UN have been modelled, as well as the diffusion of nitrogen atoms via point defects to determine how stoichiometry impacts activation energies. The aggregation of fission gas bubbles in UN voids was simulated, focussing on xenon. The findings indicate that under high pressure, xenon bubbles do not undergo thermal resolution, rather, the UN lattice prefers to deform. Such results give a greater insight into the behaviour of UN under accident conditions. With events shaping how we experience, understand, and make meaning of nuclear power, this results in ever-evolving discourse around nuclear power. Through interviews with nuclear power stakeholders, in which future technologies like ATFs were discussed, a multitude of themes have emerged, from which a creative-critical future has been constructed. This thesis exemplifies how the material and social science disciplines are inextricably linked, and makes the case for those in often isolated disciplines to take a broader approach with their studies. Through a unique interdisciplinary perspective, the material social futures of nuclear power have been explored to highlight the importance of conducting holistic research in order to better examine our perceived nuclear power futures.