RRFM 2005 Summary
It is not my intention to give a detailed overview
of all of this conference’s presentations, but rather to give
a short overview of main messages, views, ideas and the progress
made regarding the Fuel Cycle Management for Research Reactors.
The RRFM 2004 Meeting organized in Munich celebrated
FRM-II Reactor Nuclear Commissioning. The RRFM move this year to
Budapest celebrates European Union enlargement to Eastern European
countries.
RRFM 2005: The conference Room
The first session including a
status report on EU New and Candidate States Research Reactors utilization
is therefore, devoted to subjects of general interest
for the entire Research Reactor Community. For some decades to come,
Research Reactors still will be needed to test, certify and qualify
materials and fuels needed for future evolutionary innovative reactor
concepts and fuel cycles for future fusion reactors and critical
radioisotopes production necessary for medical treatments and diagnostics.
As most of the currently active research reactors are ageing, some
should be replaced in the near future to fulfill above mentioned
tasks. Taking into account specific production criteria, it is recommended
that at least one criteria be dedicated to the radioisotopes production.
Although the utilization of our Research Reactors
is peaceful, it is however, not to be excluded that fresh or spent
fuel can somehow be diverted to malicious uses, justifying American
and Russian coordinated efforts to develop new fuels needed for
global Research Reactor conversion to LEU.
RRFM 2005: Guided city walking tour
The second session (Fuel development,
qualification and licensing) was, as in the last conferences, dominated
by the development of new high density UMo fuels. After the recent
discovery of abnormal behavior, unstable swelling of these fuels
in particular conditions, the American, French, Russian and Argentinean
groups set up plans to understand the observed unstable swelling,
and to eliminate or mitigate this behavior by out of pile and in
pile investigations. This work in now underway and could still last
for several years. On the American side, however, the objective
is still a qualification of UMo as dispersed fuel or monolithic
fuel for the year 2010.
The third session was devoted
to reactor operation, fuel safety and core conversion. The main
American RERTR program objectives such as conversion and analysis,
fuel development and supply and finally Mo99 target and process
development (this last point still looks as a very sensitive and
difficult point for some Mo99 producers using HEU) were reviewed.
The overall program objective is to convert 105 reactors, including
all major U.S. to LEU by 2014.
RRFM 2005: Conference dinner
Other main points in this session related to the
nuclear startup and first FRM-II reactor operational experience,
the reduced enrichment programs for the reactors FRM-II and HFR-Petten,
the conversion experience of an American university reactor, the
analysis of fission product release from research reactor fuel during
accident conditions, a comparative analysis of power peaking factors
for HEU and LEU fuel elements.
The main messages of the fourth and last
session concerned the extension of the U.S. fuel take back
program for another 10 years, the confirmation of the excellent
reprocess ability of the UMo fuels by the dissolution of inactive
and irradiated materials, research reactor fuel corrosion behavior
during its final disposal and the solutions adopted by Netherlands
and Finland for the storage and disposal of their research reactor
fuels.
