40 лет производства топлива MOX: опыт и уроки для проектирования новой перспективной установки

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LESSONS-LEARNED AND EXPERIENCEFROM 40 YEARS OF MOX FUEL PRODUCTION

FOR THE FUTURE DESIGN OF A NEW FACILITY

Michel Pibarot

AtomEco-2011

November 1st, 2011

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MOX lessons-learned M. Pibarot - AtomEco-2011 - November 1st page 2

Introduction

Preamble

MOX fuel production

Production at the Cadarache and MELOX facilitiesMOX manufacturing process

Lessons-learned

Areas of improvement resulting from experience and lessons-learned

Research and development for MOX equipment

MOX facility projects for foreign clients

Conclusion

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PREAMBLE

The recycling option with MOX fuel production

Recovers reusable materials with very high energy potentialand ensures major savings of natural uranium through the use

of MOX and ERU fuel reducing natural uranium consumption until 25%

Reduces spent fuel quantities: 8 UOX 1 MOX

it is definitely easier to manage 1 used MOX fuel instead of 8 used UO2

fuel for the same amount of energy producedLimits accumulation of a huge stock of used fuel anddiminishes the quantity (by a factor of about 5) and toxicity (by a factor of10 ) of high-level nuclear waste

Allows this generation to make progress to avoid leavingnuclear waste totally to the next generation

Provides public and market confidence that used fuel is beingactually managed

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MOX fuel stands for Mixed uranium and plutonium Oxides for Fast Breeder Reactors(FBR) and Light Water Reactors (LWR)

Production at the Cadarache and MELOX facilities

Cadarache plutonium recycling facility from 1964 to 2004

MELOX facility from 1995 to present

1991 1995 2004 20111964 2000

Cadarache facility

MELOX facilityLWR MOX fuel

FBR MOX fuel

LWR MOX fuel

Flexible MOX facility

FBR MOX fuel produced: 112 tHM (Cadarache facility)

LWR MOX fuel produced: 2047 tHM (Cadarache and MELOX facilities)

MOX Fuel Production in France

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LWR MOX Fuel

2047 tHMTotal

1700347Tons (Heavy Metal)

3340715Number of assemblies

1995-20101991-2004Period of production

PWR and BWRPWRReactor

MELOXCadaracheFacility

LWR MOX fuelProduction

Customers: Fuel vendors and end-users The Fuel Vendor (FV) is responsible for fuel assembly design and

serves as liaison between the manufacturer and end-user (utility)

MOX fuel vendors: AREVA NP, NFI, MHI/MNF, GNF-J

LWR MOX fuel end-users: EDF, CEA, E.ON, RWE, NOK, Kansai

Electric, TEPCO, Chubu Electric, Duke Power, etc.

LWR MOX fuel designs manufactured

PWR: 14x14, 16x16, 17x17, 18x18

BWR: 8x8, 9x9, 10x10

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FBR MOX Fuel

112 tHMTotal

1,67138,51,2Tons (Heavy Metal)

766986611Number of assemblies

1987-19901979-19911971-20001969-1982Period of production

PFRSuper PhnixPhnixRAPSODIEReactor

CadaracheFacility

FBR MOX fuel

590 kg200 kg15 kgAssembly weight

5,4 m4,3 m1,66 mAssembly height

Super PhnixPhnixRAPSODIEReactor

Production

Fuel designs manufactured

Flexibility of the facility: it is feasible and it is vital to be flexible for aMOX fuel facility to produce FBR and/or LWR fuel

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MELOX startup and production

1995-1997: start up of the MELOX facility reaching nominal throughput (100tHM/y)within 3 years

2003-2005: new licensed threshold (145tHM/y) reached within 3 years

2007-2010: multi-design fuel production for French, German and Japanese customers

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

tHM/y

MELOX LWR MOX Fuel Production

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MOX production is a highly automated process

Operators carry out the operations remotely from control rooms

All operations (powder preparation, pellet and rod manufacturing) areperformed in glove boxes

Proper equipment design in glove boxes relative to operability,reliability and maintainability are key drivers for production

line efficiencyMOX process

Four principal phases: powder preparation, pellet manufacturing, rodcladding and assembling

The powder preparation (UO2 + PuO2 + recycled product) is prepared intwo steps for the LWR MOX process and one step for the FBR MOXprocess

MOX Manufacturing Process

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AREVA MOX Manufacturing Process

Secondary blend only forLWR MOX production

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Strong collaboration between the manufacturing facility operatorand plant designer enables continuous design improvement aswell as proper maintenance of engineering specifications

Improvements apply more to the main equipment environmentsthan to the main equipment itself (i.e., press, furnace)

The organization of the facility is critical for efficient traceabilityand management of change requests received from maintenance

and manufacturing (e.g., TPM organization)

For proper implementation of continuous improvement,engineering must manage the supply chain

Equipment and process modifications cannot be implemented in

the facility without first being tested in a dedicated R&Dlaboratorysuccess requires careful attention to details(The Devil is in the details)

Lessons-Learned: Key Points

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Areas of improvement resulting from

experience and lessons-learned

1 - Safety and security

A thorough knowledge of powder performance optimizes the

assumptions made for the criticality studies (e.g., safety demonstration of asecondary blend homogenizer containing more than 70kg of Pu)

Radiation worker protection management and contamination monitoringequipment

Safeguards system with continuous inventory verification

2 - Manufacturing process

Press: powder feeding, operating parameters, mechanicalimprovements, maintainability and dose reduction

Laboratory design for industrial efficiency with commercial standardanalyzers modified for use in a nuclear environment

Fully automated rod handling, control and storage equipment

Automated rod scanner inspection device (i.e., verification of pellethomogeneity, Pu concentration, presence of gaps, etc.)

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Areas of improvements resulting from


3 - Plant architecture and layout

Optimized architecture and layout accounting for conflicting

constraints regarding overall investment and safety, productioncapacity, maintenance operations, future dismantling anddecommissioning

Required equipment redundancies and space available forpotential future changes

Buffer storage locations (e.g., powder units) and capacitiesadjusted to Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of processunits

(nota: difficulties to assess OEE of mechanical equipmentlocated inside glove boxes and powder environment)

Ventilation system design and gas purging of glove boxes

Balance of plant (utilities) and support facilities (maintenanceareas, tool repair and waste sorting and packaging, etc.)

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Cadarache MOX fuel facility

Lessons-Learned: MOX facility architecture

MELOX MOX fuel facility

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4 - Material quality and production management

Computerized Production Management System (plant brain): software

for nuclear material management (i.e., surveillance, tracking) and productconformity which guaranties product quality for the customer (i.e.,traceability)

5 - Primary drivers for proven equipment design and sizing

Industrial equipment lifetime: proper balance regarding corrective,preventative and predictive maintenance (e.g., ball milling)

Lot size: large powder batch size increasing the net powder capacity(e.g., lot size: 50kg at Cadarache facility and 700kg at MELOX)

Robustness of the process qualification and optimization of the quantity

of laboratory analysis (e.g., milling, cladding) Maintainability, leak tightness and dust recovering for ALARA dose

reduction (e.g., presses, grinding machine)

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6 - Glove box designShell frame instead of previous frame type design, improved for assembly,operability and future decommissioning requirements, seismic calculation,

maintenance access, reduction of potential material retention, cleaning, etc.

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experience and lessons-learned7 - Standard equipment

Gloves (optimization of material with respect to the cost, mechanical quality

performance and work station requirements) and special shielding Glove box equipment with proven devices (fire detection, adequate

uniform lighting, multiplexer, power transmission)

Modified standard equipment (e.g., dust recovery equipped with selfcleaning filters by periodic blowback with nitrogen, powder transfer devices with

leak tightness) Incorporation of robotic technology inside glove boxes for

handling pellets (maintainability and availability of complex devices in a glovebox environment)

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Research and Development for

MOX equipmentApplied Development Centre

Develop and validate improvements in MOX fuel fabricationtechnologies on an industrial scale

Certify new production equipment suppliers

Perform testing on mechanical equipment before its

introduction into industrial service

Perform engineering tests

Cold welding shop

Prepare certification testing for welding of MOX rods

Validate welding prototypes

Provide technology intelligence and prepare for process upgrades

Test Line

Adjust industrial parameters before MOX commercial campaigns

Test experimental development programs on MOX products orprocesses

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MOX facility projects for

foreign clientsMOX Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) in the US

This MOX facility is being designed and constructedin response to the START agreement to use surplus

weapon-grade plutonium MFFF facility is based on MELOX design and

technology

Construction was started in August 2007 on the USDepartment of Energy (DOE) Savannah River Site

MOX fuel fabrication facility in Japan (JMOX)

AREVA supported JNFL for the basic design of the MOX fuel facility on theRokkasho-Mura reprocessing site through a Technical Service Agreement

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Conclusion

The concept for a new MOX fuel facility involves: Proven technology kept continuously up-to-date through R&D and

lessons-learned

Implementation of lessons-learned regarding operating in confined

environments while maintaining industrial efficiencyWe can take maximum advantage of our 40 years ofexperience by means of:

An existing sizeable reference library from multiple MOX fuelmanufacturing facilities

Facility staff knowledge and work culture contributing to thedevelopment of MOX through continuous improvement

Centralized engineering department responsible for updating standardsand specifications

R&D laboratories that are located near the manufacturing facility, fullyinvolved in MOX fuel manufacturing improvements

This critical background provides essential expertise for thefuture advanced FBR and LWR MOX fuel facility

Documents

40 лет производства топлива MOX: опыт и уроки для проектирования новой перспективной установки