Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
2002 International RERTR Meeting

PREPARATIONS FOR THE SHIPMENT OF RA-3 REACTOR IRRADIATED FUEL

Goldschmidt, Adrián, Novara, Oscar, Lafuente, José

Comisión Nacional De Energía Atómica
Argentina

ABSTRACT

Along the last quarter of 2000, in the Radioactive Waste Management Area of the Argentine National Commission of Atomic Energy (CNEA), located at Ezeiza Atomic Center (CAE), activities associated to the shipment of 207 MTR spent fuels containing high enrichment uranium were carried out within the Foreign Research Reactor / Domestic Research Reactor Receipt Program launched by the US Department of Energy (DOE).

The MTR spent fuel shipped to Savannah River Site (SRS) was fabricated in Argentina with 90 % enriched uranium of US origin and it was utilized in the operation of the research and radioisotope production reactor RA-3 from 1968 until 1987. After a cooling period at the reactor, the spent fuel was transferred to the Central Storage Facility (CSF) located in the waste management area of CAE for interim storage.

The spent fuel (SF) inventory consisted of 166 standard assemblies (SA) and 41 control assemblies (CA).

Basically, the activities performed were the fuel conditioning operations inside the storage facility (remote transference of the assemblies to the operation pool, fuel cropping, fuel re-identification, loading in transport baskets, etc.) conducted by CNEA. The loading of the filled baskets in the transport casks (NAC–LWT) by means of intermediate transfer systems and loaded casks final preparations were conducted by NAC personnel (DOE’s contractor) with the support of CNEA personnel.

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