Irradiation performance of sodium-bonded control rod for the fast breeder reactor

佐々木 新治; 前田 宏治; 古屋 廣高*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 55(3), p.276 - 282, 2018/03

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2017.1394229

The lifetime of control rods is limited by the absorber (BC pellets)-cladding mechanical interaction (ACMI). Therefore, sodium (Na)-bonded control rods were developed for long-life control rods. Na-bonded control rods have been irradiated in the experimental fast breeder reactor, JOYO MK-III, and the diametrical changes of the Na-bonded absorber pins after the irradiation were measured in detail. In this paper, these detailed measurements were compared with the results obtained in helium (He)-bonded control rods with and without the shroud tube in a wide burn-up range. From the comparison, it was concluded that the Na-bonded absorber pins are very effective for achieving long-life control rods.