Instrumentation of experimental fuel and future needs for PIE and hot-cell work (abstract and presentation slides)

In the future there will be an increasing demand for ''ordinary'' fuel and materials PIE as well as other types of hot-cell engineering work related to materials testing and re-fabrication / re-instrumentation of fuel. The ever increasing requirement for going to higher fuel discharge burn-ups in commercial power plants combined with the increasing utilization of e g. MOX, gadolinium and additive fuels will be the driving force behind this. The stronger focus also on fuel reliability issues like cladding corrosion and CRUD and changes in operational/licensing criteria will also result in an increased need for ''ordinary'' PIE and re-fabrication/re-instrumentation of fuel. In conjunction with plans for life-time extensions for existing power plants and preparations for realization of new reactor concepts (supercritical and high-temperature reactors as well as e.g. accelerator driven systems) there will be an increasing demand also for hot-cell engineering work, especially in close relation with test reactors. (Author)