Operation organization in IAA Procedures and programs Nuclear fuel management Radiation protection

OPERATION OF REACTOR MARIA

Nuclear fuel management.

The fuel assemblies containing 36% U-235 enriched uranium (430 g of U-235) are currently used in the reactor MARIA. The six-tube MR6 fuel elements were produced by Russian Federation companies.

The 23 fuel assemblies were loaded in the reactor core in December 2006. The spent fuel is stored in the storage pools filled with water. To prevent possible damage of fuel cladding due to corrosion the assemblies are encapsulated in inert gas filled stainless steel cans.

The financial analyses indicate that it is uneconomical to send the spent fuel from the MARIA reactor abroad for reprocessing. Therefore, the construction of the dry storage facility is planned to store the encapsulated assemblies for at least 50 years before transporting to the permanent repository, probably within deep depository rocks.

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