Progress of Indonesia RERTR related programs

In Indonesia, there are two main activities covering study, research ad development which can be related to reduced enrichment for research and test reactors (RERTR) program. The first activity is the attempt to improve the G.A. Siwabessy multi-purpose reactor (RSG-GAS) performance following the successful RERTR program on the development of low-enriched uranium (LEU) with high uranium loading density. This activity consists of manufacturing technology development and fabrication of LEU fuel in the form Of U3Si2-Al with high U loading density being capable to reach high burn-up, study oil the core conversion of the RSG- GAS from using oxide LEU fuel with loading density of ∼3 gU/cc into using LEU silicide fuel of higher U loading density to improve the in-core fuel management, the fuel utilization, and the cycle length, while keeping the neutron flux in the irradiation facilities remaining satisfactory and the power of the reactor remaining the same without resulting any serious penalty on the reactor safety. The second RERTR related activity is the attempt to use LEU, instead of HEU, as the target or fission product 99Mo production to supply 99mTc for medical purposes. This second activity is expected to consist of experiments covering irradiation of various forms of LEU targets in the RSG-GAS, dissolution processes of the irradiated targets, separation and purification processes to meet the radiopharmaceutical requirements and recovery of 235U from the waste as well as treatment of the emerged wastes. (author)