Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
Preamble MOX fuel production
Production at the Cadarache and MELOX facilities
Research and development for MOX equipment MOX facility projects for foreign clients Conclusion
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Limits accumulation of a huge stock of used fuel and diminishes the quantity (by a factor of about 5) and toxicity (by a factor of 10 ) of high-level nuclear waste Allows this generation to make progress to avoid leaving nuclear waste totally to the next generation Provides public and market confidence that used fuel is being actually managed
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MELOX facility
1964
1991
1995
2000
2004
2011
FBR MOX fuel produced: 112 tHM (Cadarache facility) LWR MOX fuel produced: 2047 tHM (Cadarache and MELOX facilities)
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Total
2047 tHM
Cadarache
Phnix Super Phnix 1971-2000 986 38,5 1979-1991 766 71 1,6 PFR 1987-1990
Total
112 tHM
Flexibility of the facility: it is feasible and it is vital to be flexible for a MOX fuel facility to produce FBR and/or LWR fuel
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tHM/y
120 100 80 60 40 20 0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
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Proper equipment design in glove boxes relative to operability, reliability and maintainability are key drivers for production line efficiency
MOX process
Four principal phases: powder preparation, pellet manufacturing, rod cladding and assembling The powder preparation (UO2 + PuO2 + recycled product) is prepared in two steps for the LWR MOX process and one step for the FBR MOX process
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Radiation worker protection management and contamination monitoring equipment Safeguards system with continuous inventory verification
2 - Manufacturing process
Press: powder feeding, operating parameters, mechanical improvements, maintainability and dose reduction Laboratory design for industrial efficiency with commercial standard analyzers modified for use in a nuclear environment Fully automated rod handling, control and storage equipment Automated rod scanner inspection device (i.e., verification of pellet
homogeneity, Pu concentration, presence of gaps, etc.)
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Robustness of the process qualification and optimization of the quantity of laboratory analysis (e.g., milling, cladding) Maintainability, leak tightness and dust recovering for ALARA dose reduction (e.g., presses, grinding machine)
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Incorporation of robotic technology inside glove boxes for handling pellets (maintainability and availability of complex devices in a glove
box environment)
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Test Line
Adjust industrial parameters before MOX commercial campaigns Test experimental development programs on MOX products or processes
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Conclusion
The concept for a new MOX fuel facility involves:
Proven technology kept continuously up-to-date through R&D and lessons-learned Implementation of lessons-learned regarding operating in confined environments while maintaining industrial efficiency
This critical background provides essential expertise for the future advanced FBR and LWR MOX fuel facility
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