Synthesis of INSPYRE results

This document presents a synthesis of the results of the INSPYRE H2020 European Project, which was dedicated to the investigation and simulation of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuels for fast reactors and their behaviour under irradiation. It first describes the progress in the understanding and description of the behaviour of MOX fuels obtained thanks to the combination of basic research (multiscale modelling and separate effect experiments) and examination of fuels irradiated in reactors in past experiments. Four operational issues were particularly studied: margin to fuel melting; irradiated fuel thermochemistry and interaction with the cladding; self-diffusion properties and inert gas behaviour; evolution of mechanical properties under irradiation. Second, the advances made in the simulation of fast reactor MOX fuels thanks to the development of more physically justified models and their implementations in three European fuel performance codes are presented. Then, the results of the simulation of two ESNII reactor cores are shown: normal operation conditions in the ASTRID sodium fast reactor prototype and normal and transient conditions in the lead-bismuth cooled reactor of the MYRRHA accelerator driven system. Finally, the activities conducted concerning education and training, dissemination, exploitation and communication are summarized.