Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1999 International RERTR Meeting

BWX Technologies Progress with
Reduced Enrichment Fuel Production
(HIGH DENSITY FUELS)

Brett W. Pace, Senior Engineer, Engineering

Edward A. Marinak, Principle QC Engineer

ABSTRACT

BWX Technologies Inc. (BWXT) has experienced several production improvements over the past year.  The homogeneity yields in 4.8 gU/cc U3Si2 plates have increased over last year’s already high yields. Through teamwork and innovative manufacturing techniques, maintaining high quality surface finishes on plates and elements is becoming easier and less expensive. Currently, BWXT is designing a fabrication development plan to reach a fuel loading of 9 gU/cc within 2 - 4 years.  This development will involve a step approach requested by ANL to produce plates using U-8Mo at a loading of 6 gU/cc first and qualify the fuel at those levels.  In achieving the goal of a very high-density fuel loading of 9 gU/cc, BWXT is considering employing several new, state of the art, ultrasonic testing techniques for fuel core evaluation.

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