Report of the Collaboration Project for Research and Development of Sphere-pac Fuel among JNC-PSI-NRG (I); Planning, Fuel Design, Pin Fabrication

Morihira, Masayuki ; Ozawa, Takayuki   ; not registered ; Suzuki, Masahiro ; Shigetome, Yoshiaki; Kihara, Yoshiyuki; Kono, Shusaku

The collaboration project concerning sphere-pac fuel among JNC, Swiss PSI (Paul Scherrer Institut) and Dutch NRG (Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group) is in progress.Final target of the project is comparative irradiation tests of Sphere-pac fuel in the HFR (High Flux Reactor) in Petten in the Netherlands with pellet type fuel and vipack fuel. Total 16 fuel segments (8 pins) of these three types of fuel are planned to be irradiated. Two sphere-pac fuel segments contain 5%Np in addition to 20%Pu-MOX. Other segments contain no Np. Fabrication of irradiation test pins was completed till May 2003 in PSI. After transportation of the fuel pins to Petten, two times of irradiation were performed in January to March in 2004 and now post irradiation tests are in progress. Later two irradiations will be done till the autumn in 2004.This report summarized the basic plan, fuel design, and fabrication of irradiation test pins concerning this collaboration project.