Characteristics of DUPIC fuel fabrication technology

The concept of DUPIC (Direct use of spent PWR fuel in CANDU reactor) fuel is recently being taken a growing interest as an innovative fuel in terms of proliferation resistant fuel cycle for reusing spent PWR fuel in CANDU reactor without wet reprocessing process. The fabrication processes are composed of decladding of spent PWR fuel rods, OREOX processing to produce the powder feedstock from the spent PWR fuel meat. Once the resinterable powder is prepared, the fuel fabrication processes such as pelletizing, rod and bundle manufacturing processes are similar to the conventional powder/pellet routes for the fuel fabrication except that all the processes should be performed in hot cell by remote manner. The characteristics of the DUPIC fuel fabrication processes and the status of the equipment development at KAERI is described. (author)