Radiological considerations in the design of Reprocessing Uranium Plant (RUP) of Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle Facility (FRFCF), Kalpakkam

A Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle Facility (FRFCF) being planned at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam is an integrated facility with head end and back end of fuel cycle plants co-located in a single place, to meet the refuelling needs of the prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR). Reprocessed uranium oxide plant (RUP) is one such plant in FRFCF to built to meet annual requirements of UO2 for fabrication of fuel sub-assemblies (FSAs) and radial blanket sub-assemblies (RSAs) for PFBR. RUP receives reprocessed uranium oxide powder (U3O8) from fast reactor fuel reprocessing plant (FRP) of FRFCF. Unlike natural uranium oxide plant, RUP has to handle reprocessed uranium oxide which is likely to have residual fission products activity in addition to traces of plutonium. As the fuel used for PFBR is recycled within these plants, formation of higher actinides in the case of plutonium and formation of higher levels of 232U in the uranium product would be a radiological problem to be reckoned with. The paper discussed the impact of handling of multi-recycled reprocessed uranium in RUP and the radiological considerations