Interstorage of AVR-Fuels in the Research-Center

Conference · Wed Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2002

OSTI ID:828962

Krumbach, H

Between 26.08.1966 and 31.12.1988 the experimental nuclear power plant AVR was operated in the area of the Juelich research-center by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchs-Reaktor mbH, the AVR company. This plant was a Helium cooled high-temperature-reactor with an electric gross-power of 15 MW. This type of power plant was the first one being developed exclusively in Germany. The high-temperature-reactor AVR was one after the principle of the ball-pile-reactor developed by Professor Schulten. The core consists of spherical, graphite fuels with 60 mm diameter, that contain the fissile-material and breed-material in form of coated particles. The fuel is enclosed by a cylindrical graphite-construction which serves as the neutron-reflector. The coating of the fuel-particles consist of pyro-carbon and silicon-carbide and is used for the retention of the fission-products. The reactor has continuously been refueled by feeding the fuel balls into the core at the top and discharging them at the bottom during full operation. After the shut down the reactor now is on the way to safe closure while plans for dismantling have been started. The Juelich research-center was engaged with the storage of the spent fuels as part of the fuel management. The storage of the fuel in CASTOR{reg_sign} THTR/AVR casks is preceded by different actions, like the removal of the fuel from the reactor core, the interim storage of the fuel in AVR-cans in the buffer-storage, decanting of the fuel balls from AVR-cans in the dry-storage-cans (TLK), the interim storage of the TLK, welding of the TLK which contain wet fuel and the loading of each CASTOR{reg_sign} THTR/AVR cask with two TLKs, are necessary. The action is taken at different locations in the research-center. The steps of the fuel management are described in the following.

• Research Organization: Research-Center Juelich GmbH 52425 Juelich (DE)
• Sponsoring Organization: none (US)
• OSTI ID: 828962
• Resource Relation: Conference: Waste Management 2002 Symposium, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/24/2002--02/28/2002; Other Information: PBD: 27 Feb 2002
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
CASKS
CLOSURES
COATINGS
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUEL MANAGEMENT
FUEL PARTICLES
GRAPHITE
HELIUM
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
POWER PLANTS
REACTOR CORES
RETENTION
SPENT FUELS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE STORAGE