Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2003 International RERTR Meeting

MANUFACTURING AND LICENSING OF A LEAD TEST ASSEMBLY FOR THE R2 REACTOR

JP. DURAND, F. OBADIA, Ch JAROUSSE,
Y. LAVASTRE, M.GRASSE

CERCA
ZI les Bérauds, 26104 Romans, France

J.L. FALGOUX

CERCA
Tour FRAMATOME, 92084 Paris La Defense, France

U. LINDELÖW

Studsvik Nuclear AB, SE-611 82 Nyköping, Sweden

ABSTRACT

In Sweden there is a law stating that a reactor operator must have a final solution for the back-end of the fuel cycle. The R2 reactor, operated by Studsvik Nuclear outside Nyköping in Sweden, has such a solution at hand until May 2006, through the US policy regarding Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel, FRRSNF. For the period after that date the RERTR program has been working on a new fuel type the UMo fuel. However, this program is lagging behind and the full qualification program will not be finalised in time for the R2 needs. Based on this Studsvik Nuclear decided to go along on its own with an LTA program aiming for the full qualification of an UMo fuel design in 2005.

In 2002, CERCA proposed to develop, manufacture and deliver to the R2 reactor, a new design of fuel element based on the alloy (UMo 7% alloy) as an alternative to the common Low Enriched Uranium silicide element. The development challenge was to keep the fuel element performances as high as possible without going beyond the actual inspection criteria. The specification agreed between STUDSVIK and CERCA showed the possibility to manufacture this high-density fuel element in CERCA’s facility in Romans-sur-Isère (France).

We propose to present how the fabrication was conducted and what were the main obtained results and how the licensing of and the introduction into the R2 reactor are planned.