Performance Assessment of Fuel and Core Structural Materials Irradiated in FBTR

Post-irradiation examination (PIE) is a vital link in the nuclear fuel cycle for providing valuable feedback on the performance and residual life of the fuel and structural materials to designers, fabricators, and reactor operating personnel. The challenging task of setting up of alpha,beta,gamma inert atmosphere hot cell facility for PIE of Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) was accomplished successfully and irradiation performance of the FBTR mixed carbide fuel was assessed stage wise at various burnups starting from 25 GWd/t upto 155 GWd/t. With FBTR being used as a test bed for irradiation experiments on various FBR fuels and structural materials, PIE of various materials subjected to experimental irradiation like the PFBR MOX fuel, FBTR grid plate material have also been carried out to provide valuable feedback to the designers. This paper highlights the (i) results of comprehensive PIE carried on mixed carbide fuel & structural material (ii) control rod performance and (iii) outcome of the examinations on the experimental irradiated sub assemblies. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Indra Gandhi Centre of Atomic Research