Development of technology for mass post-irradiation examinations of BN reactor fuel pins

A new material laboratory section has been put into operation in RIAR which comprises 7 shielded hot cells with investigation equipment designed for primary non-destructive examination of the full-scale fuel assemblies for power reactors including the BN-reactors as well. In order to develop the technology for mass examination of the BN-reactor fuel pins, measurements have been carried out with fuel pins from three standard BOR-60 fuel assemblies with the burnup up to 15% heavy atoms. The following parameters have been measured: fuel pin outside diameter, gas volume under the cladding, integrity of the cladding and fission product behaviour. Some results of the analysis of the experimental data bulk on the outside diameter are presented for selection and minimizing the number of fuel pins required for specimen preparation for further non-destructive examinations. A tendency to relative reduction of destructive testing is shown due to improvement of non-destructive methods. (author). 7 figs, 3 tabs