PWR fuel: experience and development

The start-up of the large French nuclear program has rapidly led FRAGEMA to be one of the first PWR fuel suppliers. FRAGEMA is a joint subsidiary of two companies whose scopes of supply are fully complementary: FRAMATOME (NSSS vendor) and COGEMA (nuclear fuel cycle service supplier). At the center of these two activities FRAGEMA is in charge of designing and marketing fuel assemblies. Assistance is also offered to nuclear power plant operators in all fuel related fields by providing a wide range of services and a number of specialized components. Over the past years a statistical data base has been accumulated on fuel assembly behaviour under various operating conditions. At the same time extensive experimental programs have been, set up to develop advanced products to cope with utilities needs in the future. An overview of these two sides of our experience is presented in the following