Analysis of performance of fuel elements of the BOR-60 reactor with vibrocompacted uranium-plutonium oxide fuel

The advantages of fast reactors can be realized in a well-developed, economical, closed fuel cycle. Of late, an ever-growing amount of attention has been paid to the problem of increasing the burnup of unloaded fuel. A high percentage of burnup, a high content of fission products, and the presence of heavy nuclides of plutonium in the fuel entail an increase in the specific activity of the fuel entering the external cycle, and require the introduction of remote-controlled automated processes not only in fuel processing, but also in fuel-element and fuel-subassembly fabrication. For this reason, in addition to the traditional pellet fuel for the fuel elements of fast reactors, fuel elements containing vibrocompacted fuel are being considered as an alternative. Such fuel elements submit more readily to fabrication by remote-controlled automated processes. The paper discusses results of research on experimental fuel elements containing vibrocompacted fuel, and describes the core and fuel elements of the BOR-60 reactor and results of fuel-element studies. The successful operation of the BOR-60 reactor for 6 years on mixed vibrocompacted uranium-plutonium oxide fuel has confirmed the substantiated nature of the concepts and technological decisions incorporated in the design, and has enabled the authors to outline ways of improving them further