Nuclear fuels technologies fiscal year 1996 research and research development test results

During fiscal year 1996, the Department of Energy's Office of Fissile Materials Disposition (OFMD) funded Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to investigate issues associated with the fabrication of plutonium from dismantled weapons into mixed-oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel for disposition in nuclear power reactors. These issues can be divided into two main categories: issues associated with the fact that the plutonium from dismantled weapons contains gallium, and issues associated with the unique characteristics of the PuO2 produced by the dry conversion process that OFMD is proposing to convert the weapons material. Initial descriptions of the experimental work performed in fiscal year 1996 to address these issues can be found in Nuclear Fuels Technologies Fiscal Year 1996 Research and Development Test Matrices'. However, in some instances the change in programmatic emphasis towards the Parallex program either altered the manner in which some of these experiments were performed (i.e., the work was done as part of the Parallex fabrication development and not as individual separate-effects tests as originally envisioned) or delayed the experiments into Fiscal Year 1997. This report reviews the experiments that were conducted and presents the results. 7 figs., 14 tabs