CH01000243 INIS-CH--038 Transactions Oral Presentations and Posters war * 32/ 25 5th International Topical Meeting on Research Reactor Fuel Management April 1 to 3, 2001, Aachen, Germany Organised by the European Nuclear Society European Nuclear Society Belpstrasse 23 P.O.Box 5032 CH-3001 Berne/Switzerland Phone Number: +41 58 286 6111 Fax Number: +41 58 286 6845 E-mail: rrfm2001 @to.aey.ch http://www.euronuclear.org/meetings /W.S-CH - CH01000243 RRFM 2001 5th International Topical Meeting on Research Reactor Fuel Management Eurogress Aachen, Germany April 1-3,2001 Organised by the European Nuclear Society in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency Invited and Contributed Papers Oral and Poster Presentations RRFM 2001 PROGRAM COMMITTEE Chairman: Pol Gubel, CEN/SCK Mol, Belgium Vladimir L. Afanasjev, Novosibirsk CPP, Russia Philip Beeley, HMS Sultan, United Kingdom Andre Chabre, CEA Saclay, France Joel Guidez, EC Joint Research Centre Petten, The Netherlands Jean Le Pape, Cerca, France Hans Muller, Nukem, Germany lain G. Ritchie, International Atomic Energy Agency, Austria Gerd Thamm, Research Centre Julich, Germany Istvan Vidovszky, KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute, Hungary Jacob W. de Vries, Interfaculty Reactor Institute Delft, The Netherlands Published by the European Nuclear Society (ENS) Belpstrasse 23, P.O. Box 5032, CH-3001 Berne (Switzerland) Phone: +41 58 286 61 11 Fax: +41 58 286 68 45 INDEX Session 1: Fissile materials supply, fuel fabrication and licensing Page FRM-II: status of construction, licensing and fuel tests 1 A. Axmann, K. Boning and M. Nuding, Technical University of Munich, and H.-J. Didier, Framatome ANP GmbH, Germany Reduction of fuel enrichment for research reactors built-up in accordance with Russian (Soviet) projects 127 A.B. Aleksandrov, A.A. Enin and A.A. Tkachyov, Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, Russia CERCA 01: a new safe multidesign MTR transport cask 6 B.S. Faure-Geors, Framatome ANP Nuclear Fuel - Cerca, and M.E. Doucet, Framatome ANP Nuclear Fuel, France The new context for transport of radioactive and nuclear material 12 C. Anne and J. Galtier, Transnucleaire, France Session 2: Development and qualification The qualification of a new fuel — the operator's perspective 17 E. Koonen, SCK/CEN, Belgium Status of research reactor fuel test in the High Flux Reactor (Petten) 22 J. Guidez and S. Casalta, European Commission, JRC, and F.J. Wijtsma, P.J.M. Thijssen, J.A. Hendriks and G. Dassel, NRG Petten, The Netherlands, and H. Vacelet, Cerca Framatome, and A. Languille, CEA Cadarache, France Progress in qualifying low-enriched U-Mo dispersion fuels 27 J.L. Snelgrove, G.L. Hofman, S.L. Hayes and M.K. Meyer, Argonne National Laboratory, USA Safety assessments of IRIS irradiation tests performed in SILOE and OSIRIS for the qualification of new fuels for research reactors 35 H. Abou Yehia, G. Bars, A. Orjol and P. Tran Dai', IPSN, France Experimental irradiation of full-sized plates of high density UMo fuels 41 P. Sacristan, A. Languille and F. Souchon, CEA Saclay/Cadarache, and H. Vacelet, Cerca, and J.M. Hamy, Framatome, and J.L. Guillet, Cogema, and E. Le Borgne, Technicatome, France Qualification of high density fuel manufacturing for research reactors at CNEA 46 P. Adelfang, L. Alvarez, N. Boero, R. Calabrese, M. De La Fuente, P. Echenique, M. Markiewicz, E. Pasqualini, G. Ruggirello and H. Taboada, CNEA, Argentina Session 3: Reactor operation, fuel safety and core conversion New nuclear technologies will help to ensure the public trust and further development of research reactors 51 S.V. Miasnikov, Kurchatov Institute, Russia Fast reactor core management in Japan: twenty years of evolution at JOYO 56 S. Maeda, T. Sekine and T. Aoyama, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, Japan Absolute on-line in-pile measurement of neutron fluxes using self-powered neutron detectors: Monte Carlo sensitivity calculations 61 L. Vermeeren, SCK/CEN, Belgium New research possibilities at the Budapest research reactor 66 T. Hargitai and I. Vidovszky, KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute, Hungary Session 4: Spent fuel management, corrosion and degradation Dry storage of the BR3 spent fuel in the Castor BR3 cask 73 L. Ooms, V. Massaut and L. Noynaert, SCK/CEN, and M. Braeckeveldt, Niras/Ondraf, Belgium Management and physical assessment of the spent fuel from research reactors in Poland 78 S. Chwaszczewski, W. Czajkowski, E. Borek-Kruszewska, T. Matysiak and M. Madry, Institute of Atomic Energy, Poland Nuclear spent fuel dry storage in the EWA reactor shaft 83 W. Mieleszczenko, A. Moldysz, A. Hryczuk and T. Matysiak, Institute of Atomic Energy, Poland Activities, problems and prospects related to safe disposal of research reactor RA spent fuel 88 M.V. Matausek, Z. Vukadin, I. Plecas and R. Pavlovic, VINCA Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Yugoslavia, and S. Bulkin, A. Sokolov and A. Morduhai, R&D Institute for Power Engineering, Russia Evaluation of aluminium-clad spent fuel corrosion in Argentine basins 93 R. Haddad, A.N. Loberse, C.J. Semino and R. Guasp, CNEA, Argentina Session 5: Back-end options and transportation R&D for back-end options for irradiated research reactor fuel in Germany 99 H. Brucher, H. Curtius and J. Fachinger, Research Centre Julich, Germany Spent fuel management — two alternatives at the FiR 1 reactor 104 S.E.J. Salmenhaara, Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), Finland The long-term behaviour of cemented research reactor waste under the geological disposal conditions of the Boom Clay Formation: results from leach experiments 107 A. Sneyers, J. Fays and P. Van Iseghem, SCK/CEN, Belgium Reprocessing RTR fuel in the La Hague plants 112 J. Thomasson, Cogema, and F. Drain and A. David, SGN, France Silicon behaviour during reprocessing of uranium silicide fuel by the PUREX process 117 E. Touron and L. Cheroux, CEA, France Ultimate disposition of aluminum clad spent nuclear fuel in the United States 122 C.E. Messick and W.D. Clark, U.S. Department of Energy, and M. Clapper and T.P. Mustin, DOE Headquarters, USA Posters 1 The review of fuel types for Russian research reactors — their fabrication and quality control 133 A.A. Enin, A.B. Alexandrov and I.E. Zaporozhets, Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, Russia 2 Safety of fuel using 137 0. Kondratskyy, P. Ponomarenko and 0. Vasiliev, Sevastopol Inst. of Nuclear Energy, Ukraine 3 The change of the stress condition for the cladding of the research reactor fuel element after conversion to a low-enriched fuel 142 V.V. Popov, V.M. Troyanov and M.Ya. Khmelevsky, IPPE, Russia 4 A gamma heating calculation methodology for research reactor application 147 Y.K. Lee, J.-C. David and H. Carcreff, CEA - Saclay, France 5 Criticality safety calculations of the Soreq research reactor storage pool 152 M. Caner, H. Hirshfeld. A. Nagler, I. Silverman and M. Bettan, Soreq Nuclear Research Center, Israel, and S.H. Levine, Penn State University, USA 6 FRG-1: new millenium — new compact core 157 P. Schreiner and W. Knop, GKSS Research Centre, Germany 7 Stand for visual and ultrasonic testing of spent fuel 160 W. Czajkowski and E. Borek-Kruszewska, Institute of Atomic Energy, Poland 8 Status and future of WWR-M research reactor in Kiev 165 D.A. Bazavov, V.I. Gavrilyuk, V.I. Kirischuk, V.V. Kochetkov, M.V. Lysenko, V. N. Makarovskiy, A.M. Scherbachenko, V.N. Shevel and V.I. Slisenko, Scientific Center "Institute for Nuclear Research", Ukraine 9a Neutron multiplication method for measuring the amount of fissile isotopes in the spent fuel 170 S. Chwaszczewski and K. Pytel, Institute of Atomic Energy, Poland, and A.A. Abou-Zaid, Atomic Energy Authority, Egypt 9b Treatment of irradiated fuel elements of the Rossendorf Research Reactor — concept, status, experiences 175 W. Boessert, Nuclear Engineering and Analytics Rossendorf Inc., Germany 10 Safety aspects of receipt and storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Savannah river site 179 A.S. Busby and T.C. Andes, Westinghouse Savannah River Co., USA 11 Research reactors spent fuel management in the Nuclear Research Institute Rez 184 J. Rychecky, NRI Rez, Czech Republic 12 Sealing of failed spent fuel assemblies discharged from the research reactors by means of a conserving agent "ATOMIC" 190 V.G. Aden, V.P. Aleksandrov, S.Yu. Bulkin and A.V. Sokolov, ENTEK, and T.V. Lapitskaya, SMC "EPITAL", Russia 13 Decommissioning the Jason Argonaut research reactor at a world heritage site 195 R.J.S. Lockwood and P.A. Beeley, HMS Sultan, United Kingdom 14 Neutronic design and comparative characteristics of new pin type control rod for 14-MW-TR1GA-SSR reactor 200 C. lorgulis and C. Truta, Institute for Nuclear Research, Romania 15 Uranium retrieval support, storage and marketing 208 J.D. Jackson and E.M. Marshall, U.S. Department of Energy, USA 16 Operation of the SLOWPOKE-2 reactor in Jamaica 211 C.N. Grant, G.C. Lalor and M.K. Vuchkov, University of the West Indies, Jamaica Session 1 Fissile materials supply, fuel fabrication and licensing CH01000244 FRM-II: STATUS OF CONSTRUCTION, LICENSING AND FUEL TESTS A. AXMANN, K. BONING, M. NUDING Technische Universitdt Miinchen ZBE FRM-H-Bau 85747 Garching - Germany and H.-J. DIDIER Framatome ANP GmbH 91056 Erlangen - Germany 1. Introduction The research reactor FRM-II of the Technische Universitat Miinchen is now ready for the nuclear start-up, but still waiting for the operational license. The high-flux neutron-source FRM-II (8 x 1014 n/(s cm2)) is a unique tool for solid state physics and materials research by neutron scattering, positron annihilation experiments and activation analysis fundamental physics isotope production silicon doping cancer therapy by irradiation with fission neutrons tomography with fast and thermal neutrons Reactor built in facilities as a hot source a cold source an uranium loaded converter plate producing an intense beam of fission neutrons allow to expand the range of usable neutron energies far beyond the thermal spectrum.