Device for gap measurement in dispersion fuel elements for research reactors

• Grant number: 09/18633-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2010
• End date: April 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Nuclear Engineering - Nuclear Fuel
• Principal Investigator: Michelangelo Durazzo
• Grantee: Michelangelo Durazzo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN). Secretaria de Desenvolvimento Econômico (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The use of radioisotopes in the medicine certainly is one of the most important social uses of the nuclear energy. Distributed for hospitals and clinics by the whole country, radiopharmaceutical products assist more than three million patients a year. The Nuclear and Energy Research Institute - IPEN occupies a special position in the history of the nuclear medicine in Brazil, developing and producing radiofármacos starting from radioisotopes produced in the nuclear research reactor IEA-R1, being responsible for the service of 98% of the current total demand.The Brazilian demand for radiopharmaceuticals has been growing continually through the years, in a regime of approximately 10% a year. On this year of 2009, a serious world crisis in the supply of radioisotopes occurs, with serious impact in Brazil, caused mainly by the shutdown of a Canadian research reactor, which interrupted the supplying of radioisotopes produced in Canada.To face that situation, Brazil decided to build a new nuclear research reactor, denominated Reator Multipropósito Brasileiro - RMB, with larger power than the current reactor of IPEN, in order to guarantee the supplying of radioisotopes to the Brazilian market, project that was established as goal in the item 18.6 of PACTI/MCT - Action Plan in Science, Technology and Innovation of MCT for 2007-2010.Since 1988 IPEN has been manufacturing the fuel for the IEA-R1 reactor of IPEN, being the unique Brazilian manufacturer of this type of fuel. It was decided that the new reactor RMB will use the same type of fuel than the reactor IEA-R1, increasing the concentration of uranium to 4,8 g/cm3 with the uranium silicide technology, in a first stage, and to 7 g/cm3 with the U-Mo alloy technology, in a second stage. That is the objective of a research project FAPESP 2007/07769-7, now in execution.The new fuel elements that are being developed for RMB will operate in much more severe conditions than the ones found now in the IEA-R1 reactor of IPEN. Then, the present project seeks to develop and to implant in IPEN a methodology to measure the gap between fuel plates in the assembled fuel element, generating quantitative data that will guarantee the dimensions of the cooling channels of the fuel element. Now, due to the low operational request of the fuel element operating in the IEA-R1reactor, which has low power, just a verification with pass-not-pass type calibers is enough to guarantee the dimensions of the cooling channels. However, under the operational conditions of the new reactor RMB, a measurement is indispensable, generating numeric data that will guarantee the dimensions of the cooling channels, and so, a perfect performance of the fuel element. (AU)