FederalState Unitary Enterprise
A.A. Bochvar All-Russia
Research Institute of Inorganic Materials
123060 Moscow, VNIINM, P.B.
369, Rogova St., 5a
ABSTRACT
Pin-type
fuel elements of new generation have been developed for conversion of
Russian-built research reactors to LEU. This paper contains the main results of
out-of-pile investigations during manufacturing of experimental batches of
mini- and full size fuel elements for irradiation tests in “MIR” (Dmitrovgrad)
and VVR-M (Gatchina) reactor respectively. U-Mo LEU fuel granules have been
manufactured both by centrifugal atomization and by hydride-dehydride process.
Loading of mini-fuel elements made 4 and 6 g U/cm3, whereas full
size ones were loaded to 5.3 g U/cm3. All fuel elements went through
quality control of cladding thickness and uniformity of fuel granules distribution
through the length of each one.