Operational experiences in MOX fuel fabrication for the FUGEN advanced thermal reactor

The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, JNC, has fabrication the MOX fuel for the Advanced Thermal Reactor, ATR, ''FUGEN'' in the Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility, PFFF, since 1974. For these 25 years, the MOX fuel fabrication has progressed in stable manner after overcoming several problems at the start up of FUGEN fuel fabrication. Through the experience, improvements on process equipment and conditions have been taken place to achieve efficient MOX fuel fabrication on an engineering scale as 10 tons MOX per year. Main features of current fabrication process are digested as one step blending with ball milling, pelletizing without granulation and sintering with batch type furnaces. This fabrication process has been demonstrated and confirmed to be applicable techniques for the MOX fuel fabrication on this scale. This paper discusses the FUGEN fuel fabrication focused on the MOX pellet fabrication with operational experiences and improvements to the process. (author)