63 2011 Accident Tolerant Fuel After the 2011 tsunami-caused disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, DOE issued a call for fuels that could withstand extreme conditions for longer periods of time without failing.Three companies — General Electric, Westinghouse and Areva — responded to the call to develop advanced fuel concepts.The first samples were irradiated at ATR in 2015. Phase 1 included feasibility assessments, during which fuel concepts were developed, tested and evaluated — wrapping up in 2016. On March 4, 2018, accident-tolerant fuel assemblies were inserted for testing at Southern Nuclear’s Edwin I. Hatch Plant near Baxley, Georgia. Both Areva and Westinghouse will insert test rods in 2019 at plants in Illinois: the LaSalle County Nuclear Generating Station (Areva fuel) and Exelon’s Byron Generating Station (Westinghouse fuel). “ I think we have some good concepts to work with. The projects we’re developing now could significantly impact nuclear energy in both the short and long term.” — Shannon Bragg-Sitton, Deputy National Technical Director for the Advanced Fuels Campaign