Feasibility Analysis for Application of Compact Power Reactor Fuelled with Uranium Zirconium Hydride

This paper introduced the main properties and characteristics of the uranium zirconium hydride fuel element（especially its thermo-physical properties and in-core irradiation performance） as well as some work on the power reactor with uranium zirconium hydride element.And then, the feasibility of uranium zirconium hydride power reactor was studied. The basic conclusions were obtained: There is no severe technical problem in the uranium zirconium hydride fuel elements used for compact power reactor;and there is still a biggish prompt negative temperature coefficient in the compact power reactors with thin rod uranium-zirconium hydride element, in other words, the inherent safety can be retained on a certain extent.