Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2000 International RERTR Meeting

RERTR ACTIVITIES IN ARGENTINA

P. Adelfang, L. Alvarez, N. Boero, R. Calabrese, M. De La Fuente, P. Echenique,
M. Markiewicz, E. Pasqualini, A. Pérez, A. Piazza, G. Ruggirello, H. Taboada

Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica
Unidad Actividad Combustibles Nucleares - CAC
Avda. del Libertador 8250
C1429BNO Buenos Aires- República Argentina

ABSTRACT

The Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina has been involved in the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors Program since 1978. The most relevant milestones of the program, regarding fuel R&D activities, were the development and manufacturing at industrial scale of U₃O₈ dispersed fuel assemblies and the conversion of the RA-3 reactor core to LEU fuel.

More recently, the activities were focused in the development of high density U₃Si₂ fuel with a density of 4.8 gU/cm³ and the improvement of the manufacturing process of  U₃Si₂ powder.

Currently one of the main objectives is to develop and qualify the technology for the production of high-density LEU fuel elements using U-Mo alloy. Several alternative ways to obtain U-Mo powder are under development with the aim of evaluating plant scale production and costs.

To boost this program the main research reactor of Argentina, the RA3, will be upgraded to 10 MW early in 2001 and the hot cells at the Ezeiza Atomic Center are fully operational after important investments.

Significant progresses were also carried out in the development of LEU targets for the production of Mo99. Experimental work has demonstrated the feasibility of the manufacturing and radiochemical processing of miniplate targets prepared with dispersed U-Alx, maintaining the geometry and the alkaline processing of the HEU targets used so far.

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