Korea's CANDU Fuel R and D Program

Abstract

As the first R AND D activity led to the nuclear fuel industrialization in Korea, KAERI had successfully developed the CANDU-6 fuel bundle in the period of 1981 to 1986 and has commercially produced more than 35,000 fuel bundles for the use in Wolsong Unit 1 since 1987. The commercial production of the CANDU-6 fuel in KAERI will be terminated on the end of 1997 and KNFC will take over the mission of CANDU-6 fuel production with a capacity of 400 tons of uranium per year from 1998. In 1992 June, KAERI's long term nuclear R and D program as a national R and D program for the enhancement of nuclear energy development in Korea was established with the approval of Korea Atomic Energy Committee. Subsequently, the KAERI's CANDU fuel R and D projects have been intensively carried out to develop CANDU new fuel such as CANFLEX and DUPIC in which KAERFs advanced CANDU reactor development project also interested. For CANFLEX fuel development : (1) 1992-1998, CANFLEX-NU fuel bundle is being developed jointly by AECL and KAERL The bundle is expected to provide a fuel bundle format that is more appropriate to the specific needs of CANDU advanced fuel cycles than CANDU-6 fuel bundle; (2) 1996 - 2001, CANFLEX-SEU and -RU fuel will be developed to reduce the CANDU fuel cycle cost. For DUPIC fuel development to improve fuel utilization in the next century, (1) 1991-1993, the feasibility study was performed to determine the most promising method of recycling the PWR spent fuel in CANDU; (2) 1993-2000, the study for the experimental verification of the performance of DUPIC fuel by manufacturing and testing of prototypical DUPIC fuel is conducted in cooperation with AECL and US DOS. To support these CANDU fuel R and D program, KAERI develops the R and D facilities: (1) 1993-1997, a steady state CANDU fuel irradiation loop will be installed at HANARO research reactor; (2) 1997-2001, a transient state CANDU fuel irradiation loop will be installed at HANARO research reactor, (3) 1993 - 2000, the preparation of IMEF hot cell facility and development of process equipment are under way for the DUPIC fuel fabrication; (4) Beside these facilities, KAERI also makes recently an attempt on feasibility investigations to have a critical assembly test facility for fuel reactivity tests as well as a loop for CHF tests of CANDU fuel bundle.