Development of annular pellet production techniques for PFBR fuel

Advanced Fuel Fabrication Facility (AFFF) at Tarapur is an industrial scale plant for the fabrication of plutonium based ceramic nuclear fuels. Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel for TAPS is being regularly manufactured in this facility. Efforts are now on to fabricate MOX fuel for the proposed Prototype Fast Breeder Reactors (PFBR). Experimental studies were carried out using natural UO2 for the fabrication of PFBR fuel pellets. These trials were carried out in glove box condition of the existing fuel pelletisation line, The PFBR fuel pellets are of annular cylindrical shape of around 5.5 mm diameter having internal hole diameter of around 1.7 mm. Apart from meeting physical integrity criteria, the linear mass should be between 2.25 -2.41 gm/cm. Fabrication of annular pellet meeting these specifications require special techniques to be developed. Further, equipment used in the process especially final compaction press should be capable of giving high rate of production. This paper discusses the preliminary work done to fabricate the annular pellets using the existing facilities and the results obtained. (author)