Advanced Fuel for Fast Breeder Reactors: Fabrication and Properties and Their Optimization Iaea, Vienna, 1988 Iaea-Tecdoc-466
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
IAEA-TECDOC-466 ADVANCED FUEL FOR FAST BREEDER REACTORS: FABRICATIO PROPERTIED NAN S AND THEIR OPTIMIZATION PROCEEDINGS OF A TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEETING ORGANIZEE TH Y DB INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, AND HELD IN VIENNA, 3-5 NOVEMBER 1987 A TECHNICAL DOCUMENT ISSUEE TH Y DB INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, VIENNA, 1988 ADVANCED FUEL FOR FAST BREEDER REACTORS: FABRICATION AND PROPERTIES AND THEIR OPTIMIZATION IAEA, VIENNA, 1988 IAEA-TECDOC-466 Printed by the IAEA in Austria June 1988 PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ALL OF THE MISSING PAGES IN THIS DOCUMENT WERE ORIGINALLY BLANK The IAEA does not normally maintain stocks of reports in this series However, microfiche copies of these reports can be obtained from INIS Clearinghouse international Atomic Energy Agency Wagramerstrasse5 PO Box 100 140A 0 Vienna, Austria Orders shoul accompaniee db prepaymeny db f Austriao t n Schillings 100, m ihe form of a cheque or in the form of IAEA microfiche service coupons which may be ordered separately from the INIS Clearinghouse. FOREWORD Twelve fast breeder reactors operation (FBRsi e )ar seven i n n countries which are different in scale from small test reactors with thermal capacity of 10-60 MW to semi-commercial reactors with capacity of 1500-3000 MW(th). Five FBRs are under construction (SMR-300-FRG, PEC-Italy, Monju-Japa BN-800-USSRo tw d nan d thre)an e more firmlar e y planned (Joint European project, PFBR-India and BN-1600 USSR). These statistics show that industrial-scale implementation of FBRs is rather limited and does not look as optimistic as it did 5-10 years ago. There are many reasons explaining this fact and among them: current uranium oversupply and low prices, reduction of prices for organic fuels, higher construction cost for FBRs than for LWRs, reduction in electricity deman d othersan d . However taking into account tha productiou P t n will be increased when large-scale reprocessing plants are commissioned (totaling appro yeae xth r 100 y coult b 2000i 0 u e d P b tond ) an f o s optimally used onl FBRsn i y e coul,on d sugges e revivath t f industriao l l interest in FBRs. The present design for FBR fuel rods includes usually MOX fuel pellets cladded into stainless steel tubes, together with UO axial blanket and stainless steel hexagonal wrappers. Mixed carbide, nitride and metallic fuels have been teste s alternativa d e fuel n tesi s t reactors. India's 42,5 MW(th) fast breeder test reactor (FBTR) commissioned in October 1985, uses (70% Pu-30% U) C as the driver fuel. Among others, the objectives to develop these alternative fuels are to gain a high breeding ratio, short doubling time and high linear ratings .d assembl an Fued ro ly designer w concentratinno e sar n go finding the combination of optimized fuel, cladding and wrapper materials which could resul improvemenn i t fuef o t l operational reliability under high burnup d load-folloan s w mod f operationo e . Some of these aspects were discussed at the Agency's Advisory Group on Advanced Fuel Technology and Performance (Wurenlingen, Switzerland, 6 Decembe4- r 1984) including fabrication technology, irradiation properties and feasibility of reprocessing of mixed carbide and nitride FBR fuels. The Advisory Group recommended to hold the meeting on Advanced LMFBR Fuels Technolog d Propertiean y 1987n n spiti sI .f som eo e oversuppl uraniumf o y , mentioned e generaaboveth d l,an stagnatioe th n i n nuclear industry Agence th , y feel ss necessar i tha t i t o continut y n a e effor te improvemen aimeth t R a fued FB lf o ttechnology , reliabilityd ,an economic e orden readb i s meeo o t t yr t near future requirementf so nuclear power development. Taking this into accounte th wels ,a s a l recommendation of the Advisory Group on Advanced Fuel Technology and Performanc Agence th e y decide holo t d d this meeting e meetinTh . s wa g conducted jointly by Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Division of Nuclear Powe co-ordination i r n FBRso G .nIW wite th h The purpose of the meeting was to review the experience of advanced FBR fuel fabrication technology properties it , s before, unde d aftean r r irradiation, peculiarities of the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle, and to outline future trends. As a result of the panel discussion, the recommendations on future Agency activities in the area of advanced FBR fuels were developed. e AgencTh y wishe o thant sl thos al ko participate ewh panee th ln i d discussion. Special thanks are due to the Session Chairmen, Messr . Blank. PruniesH C d d Co-Chairmen,an an r , Messrs . Mayorshi.A d an n M. Handa. The officers of the IAEA responsible for the prepartion of the Onufriev. V documen. Mr e , ar tDivisio Nucleaf o n r Fuel . CycleV d an , Arkhipov, Division of Nuclear Power. EDITORIAL NOTE In preparing this material for the press, staff of the International Atomic Energy Agency have mounted paginatedand originalthe manuscripts submittedas authorsthe givenby and some attention to the presentation. The views expressed in the papers, the statements made and the general style adopted are the responsibility of the named authors. The views do not necessarily reflect those of the govern- ments Member ofthe States organizationsor under whose auspices manuscriptsthe were produced. The use in this book of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities institutions and delimitation the of or theirof boundaries. The mention of specific companies or of their products or brand names does not imply any endorsement or recommendation on the part of the IAEA. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining the necessary permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources. CONTENTS Status of (UPu)C and (UPu)N fuel development in BARC ........................................... 7 C. Ganguly, P.V. Hegde, A.K. Sengupta Fabricatio f uranium-plutoniuno m mixed nitrid thermalld ean y stable carbide fuels ...........5 2 . Y. Aral, Fukushima,S. Shiozawa,K. HandaM. Quality contro f uranium-plutoniuo l m mixed carbid nitridd ean e fuels ...........................5 3 . A. Maeda, T. Iwai, T. Ohmichi, M. Handa Mixed nitride fuels fabrication in conventional oxide line ............................................ 43 H. Bernard, Bardelle,P. WarinD. Use of carbide-nitride fuel in the USSR: A review .................................................... 53 A.A. Majorshin, L.M. Zabud'ko, Yu.K. Bibilashivilij, S.M. Bogatyr Fabrication processes and characterization of LMFBR carbide and nitride fuels and fuel pins .....................................................................................................1 6 . K. Richter, H. Blank Performance of He-bonded LMFBR carbide fuels at the beginning of life and consequences for their subsequent behaviour .........................................................................1 7 . Blank,H. Campana,M. Coquerelle,M. RichterK. Advanced fuel for fast breeder reactors produced by gelation methods ............................ 81 H.P. Alder, Ledergerber,G. R.W. Stratton Performance of BOR-60 vibropack uranium-plutonium oxide fuel pins ........................... 97 G.I. Gadzhiev, A.A. Majorshin, A.A. Petukhov Presen mixetR statuFB df o soxid advanced ean d fuel developmen ....................C PN t a t 7 10 . H. Endo, I. Nakajima Summar meetine th f yo g ....................................................................................9 11 . Panel Discussion ............................................................................................... 129 List of Participants ............................................................................................ 133 STATUS OF (UPu)C AND (UPu)N FUEL DEVELOPMENT IN BARC C GANGULY HEGDEV P , SENGUPTK A , A Radiometallurgy Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, India Abstract Plutonium rich (Pu/U-fP 0.7u= ) mixed uranium plutonium monocarbide (MC) has been used as driver fuel in the fast breeder test reactor (FBTR) in India. Presently, effort beine sar g mad havo et plutoniua e m rich mixed -uranium plutonium mononitride (MN) core for FBTR and to develop uranium rich (U/U+Pu = 0.8) MC and MN fuels for the forthcoming prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) of 500 MWe capacity. In BARC, viable process flowsheets are being developed for commercial carbothermie th scala vi eN M productio cd reductioan C M f no f oxideno s followe cold—pelletisatioy db sinterind nan g route. Simultaneously, thermal conductivit hardnest ho d yan s dat botf ao h plutoniu d uraniuan m md rican C M h beine Mar N g generated e out—of—pilTh . e chemical compatibilit thesf o y e fuels with S3 316 cladding and sodium coolant is also being evaluated. The present paper summarises the results of these investigations in BARC during the last two years. 1. INTRODUCTION Mixed uranium plutonium monocarbide (MC) and mononitride (MN) have been universally recognised as advanced fuels for liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactors (LMFBR basie th theif sn o )o r higher heavy atom density, better thermal conductivity and excellent compatibility with sodium coolant and claddin6 S31 B compares gconventionaa e th o dt l mixed oxide (M0_) fuels' ' . f 1 2} As a first step to LMFBR programme, India could leap frog and use a new and advanced fuel, fast namelMH t 0 y4 hyperstoichiometrie th n i c O U 7 u (P c 3 U. [ . O breeder test reactor (FBTR). With FBTR attaining criticality in October 1985, India has achieved the distinction of being the first country in the world to mixee us d carbid drives ea r fuel. The process flowshee fabricatior tfo plutoniuf no m rich mixed carbide pellet was developed in BARC. ' Simultaneously the thermophysical propertie d out—of—pilan s e behaviou hitherte th f ro o unknown fuel composition ( 1 P>\ were also evaluated. ' Parallel to the FBTR activities, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), India initiate programmda commerciar efo l deploymen LMFBRf o t s froyeae th mr 2000.