Fabrication of U-Pu-Zr metallic fuel elements for the irradiation test at experimental fast test reactor Joyo

Nakamura, Kinya*; Ogata, Takanari*; Kikuchi, Hironobu ; Iwai, Takashi; Nakajima, Kunihisa  ; Kato, Tetsuya*; Arai, Yasuo; Uozumi, Koichi*; Hijikata, Takatoshi*; Koyama, Tadafumi*; Omori, Tsuyoshi; Mimura, Hideaki; Itagaki, Wataru  ; Soga, Tomonori ; Aoyama, Takafumi 

Sodium-bonded metallic fuel elements were fabricated for the first time in Japan for the irradiation test in the experimental fast test reactor JOYO. U-20Pu-10Zr fuel slugs of 200 mm in length and approximately 5 mm in diameter were fabricated in a small-scale injection casting furnace. Each fuel slug was loaded into the ferritic martenstic stainless steel (PNC-FMS) cladding tube with the sodium thermal bond, thermal insulator and reflector in a helium gas atmosphere glove box. After top-end plug welding to the cladding tube and heat treatment of the welding area, each fuel element was subjected to the sodium bonding process. After the inspection such as element length, gas plenum length and helium-leak tightness, six metallic fuel elements are transported to the JOYO site for the coming irradiation test.