In reactor fuel performance examination technology In Korea

In order to develop an advanced nuclear fuel, a series of poolside examination (PSE) is needed to confirm in pile behavior of the fuel for commercial production. For this purpose, KNF has developed a PSE equipment to measure in reactor fuel performance. In general, PSE is performed a variety of measurements in assembly and single rod state, such as visual inspection, fuel assembly length growth, bowing and twist, rod-to-rod spacing, spacer grid width, fuel rod diameter, and fuel rod oxide thickness at the end of each cycle of irradiation during plant outage periods. After the completion of fuel life, selected rods are extracted from the fuel assembly for individual fuel rod measurement. This paper describes the technologies of PSE and outlines the principles of measurements for it use