Qualification program of research reactor fuels manufactured at IPEN–CNEN/SP

In the last years, IPEN–CNEN/SP has developed the project, technical specifications and the manufacturing of U3O8–Al and U3Si2–Al dispersion fuels. Non-destructive analysis techniques have been an important part of the qualification program of these fuels. Today, for utilization in the IEA-R1 research reactor core of IPEN, the U3O8–Al fuel is qualified up to a uranium density of 2.3 gU/cm3 and the U3Si2–Al fuel up to a uranium density of 3.0 gU/cm3. Also, analogous to the qualification process of U3O8–Al and U3Si2–Al fuels, an extended bibliography revision on the irradiation performance of U–Mo alloy dispersed in aluminum matrix (Al) was carried out to establish a set of parameters that could help in the definition of the technical specifications for manufacturing of this type of fuel at IPEN aiming its posterior utilization in the IEA-R1 reactor. The irradiation performance aspects were associated to the neutronic and thermal–hydraulics aspects in order to propose a new core configuration to the IEA-R1 research reactor using U–Mo dispersion fuels. Core configurations using U–10Mo–Al fuels with uranium densities ranging from 3 to 8 gU/cm3 were analyzed with the computational programs CITATION and MTRCR-IEA-R1. Core configurations for fuels with uranium densities ranging from 3 to 5 gU/cm3 showed to be adequate to be used in IEA-R1 reactor and would present a stable in-reactor performance even at high burnup.