TEST REACTOR IRRADIATION FUEL ASSEMBLY DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA

摘要

During the development of zirconium alloys, the irradiation in the test reactor is a critical step to comparison the irradiation properties of candidate alloys, such as corrosion, creep and irradiation growth. In this paper, a small scaled fuel assembly for test reactor irradiation is designed, which meets the needs of new zirconium alloys development. The irradiation fuel assembly (IFA) can be easily disassembled, and the test fuel rods or irradiation specimen can be easily replaced, which makes it possible to do the further post-irradiation examination in the hot cell to obtain the irradiation performance data. Now the IFA has finish fabrication and the test reactor irradiation program is planned to launch in 2017.