In 2011 the nuclear energy industry faced one of its greatest challenges. The disabling of three Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in the wake of an earthquake-triggered tsunami sparked a global race for solutions to improve nuclear safety — a race focused on accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) to avert future reactor breakdowns. Researchers in the United States rose to the challenge, among them Koroush Shirvan, assistant professor in the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. After a series of studies on ATF concepts that might be deployed in the near term in…
