Production decladding of irradiated fuel assemblies using a YAG laser

Conference · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1987 · Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6973325

Frazier, R S; Campbell, D C

Three hundred fifty-seven irradiated blanket assemblies containing 17 tonnes of depleted uranium (DU) from the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) were shipped to the Rockwell International Santa Susana Field Test Laboratory for decladding. Each assembly contained 19 fuel pins with approx. 2.5 kg of DU and inbred plutonium ranging from 10 to 450 g per assembly. The Rockwell International Hot Laboratory (RIHL) disassembled the fuel pins, removed the sodium bond material, and shipped the fuel slugs to the Savannah River Plant for reprocessing and plutonium recovery. In all, 6783 fuel pins containing 76.181 kg of plutonium were declad for reprocessing. To process the large number of fuel pins in an expedient manner, a 400-W neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser was used to cut the cladding. The laser resulted in a high-capacity process.

• OSTI ID: 6973325
• Report Number(s): CONF-8711195-; TRN: 88-033174
• Journal Information: Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States), Vol. 55; Conference: American Nuclear Society winter meeting, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 15 Nov 1987
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
EBR-2 REACTOR
SPENT FUEL ELEMENTS
LASERS
USES
MECHANICAL DECLADDING
FILTERS
PLUTONIUM
REPROCESSING
TRANSURANIUM COMPOUNDS
ACTINIDES
BREEDER REACTORS
DECLADDING
ELEMENTS
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
EXPERIMENTAL REACTORS
FAST REACTORS
FBR TYPE REACTORS
FUEL ELEMENTS
HEAD END PROCESSES
LIQUID METAL COOLED REACTORS
LMFBR TYPE REACTORS
METALS
POWER REACTORS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTORS
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SODIUM COOLED REACTORS
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
050800* - Nuclear Fuels- Spent Fuels Reprocessing
210500 - Power Reactors
Breeding