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Kalpakkam unit reaches milestone

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI Sept. 3. The mixed carbide fuel used at the Fast Breeder Test Reactor at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) Kalpakkam, reached the 100,000 MWd/t today. According to the IGCAR Director, S.B. Bhoje, ``the achieving of high fuel burn-up is a very important milestone in the development of the breeder reactor.''

He explained that the `burn-up' in a nuclear reactor refers to the energy extracted from the fuel before it is discharged for storage or reprocessing. ``The higher the burn-up, the less will be the fuel cycle cost due to less quantity of fuel fabrication, reprocessing and waste management. The fuel burn-up in pressured heavy water reactors is about 7,000 MWd/t average, where it is about 40,000 MWd/t in pressurised heavy reactors.''

Based on the post-irradiation examination results and extensive analysis using a computer code, it is found that the fuel is capable of undergoing a burn-up of 105,000 MWd/t, Mr. Bhoje said in a press release.

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