Research Reactor Group


Addressing research reactor fuel cycle issues

Responsible Officer: Pablo ADELFANG

Technical Meeting on USE of low enriched Uranium in Accelerator Driven Sub-critical Assemblies

The Technical Meeting (TM) was held in Vienna from 10-12 October 2005, and was attended by 15 experts from 13 Member States and 3 internal experts from NEFW. The participants provided twelve technical presentations describing the research activities in their member states for accelerator driven sub-critical assemblies (ADS).

The main purpose of the meeting was to address non-proliferation concerns related to the use of HEU in Accelerator Driven Sub-critical (ADS) systems, by exploring the technical feasibility of using Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) as an alternative fuel material. The other purpose was to get reports from member states describing the status and the current plans for ADS projects, including objectives, functions, main characteristics and design details with respect to the sub-critical assemblies. A special request was made for the participants to discuss: the use of LEU instead of HEU for the sub-critical assemblies; optimisation studies for using LEU in future ADS projects; the conversion of existing ADS with HEU to LEU; and the future ADS plans, with emphasis on the use LEU fuel and the related design issues.

The meeting was an IAEA activity in response to concerns related to proliferation issues that were raised following recent information indicating that some Member States are already operating or have plans to operate ADS systems using HEU fuel for the sub-critical assemblies. The issue was discussed during the round table session of the 2004 Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) international meeting, where the organization of this meeting was highly recommended.

The participants expressed satisfaction with the results achieved during the meeting and they look forward to the continuation of the activity, through the implementation of a working plan prepared during the meeting, for further analysis.


Presentations and Papers from the Meeting