Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the 2000 International RERTR Meeting
LEU FUEL FABRICATION PROGRAM FOR THE RECH-1 REACTOR.
STATUS REPORT
J.C. CHAVEZ, M. BARRERA, O. JIMENEZ, J. LISBOA, J. MARIN
Unidad de
Combustibles, Departamento de Materiales Nucleares.
Comision Chilena de Energía Nuclear,
Amunategui 95, Santiago 6500687- Chile
ABSTRACT
In 1995 a 50 LEU U3Si2
fuel elements fabrication program for the RECH-1 research reactor was
established at the Comision Chilena de Energia Nuclear, CCHEN. After a
fabrication process qualification stage, in 1998, four elements were early
delivered to the reactor in order to start an irradiation qualification stage.
The irradiation has reached an estimated 10% burn-up and no fabrication
problems have been detected up to this burn-up level. During 1999 and up to the
first quarter of 2000, 19 fuel elements were produced and 7 fuel elements are
expected for the end of 2000.
This report
presents an updated summary of the main results obtained in this fuel
fabrication program. A summary of other activities generated by this program,
such as in core follow-up of the four leader fuel elements, ISO 9001
implementation for the fabrication process and a fabrication and qualification
optimization planning, is also presented here.