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Coat the Fuel Pellet Challenge
Coat the Fuel Pellet Challenge

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You can find coatings everywhere –from the non-stick coating on a frying pan, to the epoxy coating inside a metal can of vegetables, to the coating on a tablet screen that keeps your oily fingerprints away. Scientists and engineers design coatings, and the ways to apply them. They choose or invent coatings that have chemical properties that are useful for solving the problem at hand, for example, to protect an item from water, chemicals, heat, or even air. Argonne scientists and engineers develop coatings for a variety of uses, including materials for electronics or renewable energy sources. One important use of coatings is to protect pellets of nuclear fuel from leaking in the extreme environment inside a nuclear reactor. For this problem, scientists want to develop a coating where energy can efficiently escape from the fuel pellet to make electricity but keep the fuel itself inside. In this activity, you will be the nuclear scientist at home. You will design a coating that can help protect a pellet-shaped object (candy) from water, heat, and microwave radiation in your kitchen!

Issuer:

Argonne National Laboratory
https://www.anl.gov/education

Evidence: Photo

Badge Type: knowledge

Expected Duration: hours

Criteria

  1. In order to earn this badge, the learner must submit a photo of their completed "Properties of Kitchen Ingredients" and "My Coatings" data tables.
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