A Review of the Italian Activities for the Thermal Recycling of Plutonium

Abstract

Extensive and mutually complementary development programs were implemented by the Italian Government Agencies for power generation (ENEL) and for nuclear research (CNEN) to investigate and assess the possibility of recycling plutonium in the thermal reactors on an industrial scale.Within ENEL’s program a total of 16 plutonium-bearing fuel assemblies were fabricated by industrial techniques and, subsequent to some open-vessel physics tests, they were loaded into the Garigliano BWR, providing about 10% of the reactor power. Within CNEN’s program, (a) a 24 000 m2 plutonium plant was built at CNEN’s Casaccia Center near Rome, (b) a series of physics experiments was performed both in the United States and in Italy, (c) a series of out-of-pile experiments is under way, in different loops for the thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical testing of the fuel assemblies, and (d) a series of mixed-oxide fuel irradiation tests, of progressively increasing difficulty, is now under way on capsules, pins, bundles, and prototypical fuel assemblies.