Technology for manufacturing dispersion nuclear fuel at Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares IPEN/CNEN-SP, Brazil

IPEN has been working for increasing radioisotope production in order to supply the expanding demand for radiopharmaceutical medicines requested by the Brazilian welfare. To reach this objective, the IEA-R1 research reactor power capacity was recently increased from 2 MW to 3.5 MW. Since 1988 IPEN has been manufacturing its own fuel element, initially based on U3O8-Al dispersion fuel plates with 2.3 g U/cm3. To support the reactor power increase, higher uranium density had to be achieved for better irradiation flux and also to minimize the irradiated fuel elements to be stored. Uranium silicide was the chosen option. This paper describes the results of this program and the current status of silicide fuel fabrication and qualification. (author)