High uranium density nuclear fuel for radioisotope/radiopharmaceutical producing reactors

• Grant number: 07/07769-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2008
• End date: April 30, 2011
• 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 medicine is certainly one of the most important social uses of nuclear energy. Radiopharmaceutical products were distributed to Brazilian hospitals and clinics. This service in 2006 attended more than 3 million patients. IPEN/CNEN-SP has a special place on the history of nuclear medicine in Brazil, developing and producing radioisotopes for medical purposes produced by the IEA-R1 research reactor. The production of IPEN represents nearly 98% of the total demand in the country. There has been a significant increase in the demand of radioisotopes over the years. Between 2002 and 2004 the increase in the demand was about 30%. In 2006, that trend was confirmed with 10% increase relative to the previous year. To face this scenario, IPEN has been increasing continuously its production of radiopharmaceuticals. IPEN for years has been upgrading the IEA-R1 research reactor to increase its power from 2 to 5 MW and its operational time from 64 to 120 hours a week. In addition, IEA-R1 faces a long-term usage for more than 50 years of operation. So a new research reactor for radioisotope production is of vital priority. This new reactor project has been considered in future government plans.Since 1988 IPEN manufactures its own fuel element, initially based on U3O8-Al dispersion fuel with 2,3 gU/cm3. To support the radioisotope production increase, higher uranium concentration in the nuclear fuel had to be achieved for better irradiation flux and also to minimize the irradiated fuel elements to be stored. The present project aims at developing and implanting in IPEN the fabrication technology of fuels with high uranium concentration, in order to supply the IEA-R1 research reactor, to operate at higher power, and other future research reactors for radioisotope production to be constructed in Brazil. The new fuel will be based on the aluminum dispersion technology with know-how available at IPEN, which will be adapted to allow increasing of uranium concentration from 3 for 7 gU/cm3 in fuel meat. For that, UMo alloy is being proposed as the fissile material to be used in this dispersion technology. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LEAL NETO, R. M.; ROCHA, C. J.; URANO DE CARVALHO, E.; RIELLA, H. G.; DURAZZO, M.. Investigation of powdering ductile gamma U-10 wt%Mo alloy for dispersion fuels. JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS, v. 445, n. 1-3, p. 218-223, FEB 2014. (07/07769-7)