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.