Test plan for the Parallex CANDU-MOX irradiation
One of several options being considered by the United States and the Russian Federation for the disposition of excess plutonium from dismantled weapons is to convert it to mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for use in Canadian uranium-deuterium (CANDU) reactors. This report describes an irradiation test demonstrating the feasibility of this concept with laboratory quantities of MOX fuel placed in the pressurized loops of the National Research Universal test reactor at the Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., Chalk River Laboratories. The objective of the Parallex (for parallel experiment) test is to simultaneously test laboratory-produced quantities of US and R.F. MOX fuel in a test reactor under heat generation rates representing those expected in the CANDU reactors. The MOX fuel will be produced with plutonium from disassembled weapons at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and at the Bochvar Institute in the Russian Federation. Thus, the test will serve to demonstrate the accomplishment of many parts of the disposition mission: disassembly of weapons, conversion of the plutonium to oxide, fabrication of MOX fuel, assembly of fuel elements and bundles, shipment to a reactor, irradiation, and finally, storage of the spent fuel elements awaiting eventual disposition in a geologic repository in Canada.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-96OR22464
- OSTI ID:
- 663219
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/TM--13302; ON: DE98003608
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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