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Re: Sellafield



Fuel pellets are generally cylindrical with concave ends.  This allows for
expansion without undue stress on the fuel cladding/tube.  An uneven shape
will put uneven stresses on the fuel tube and possibly lead to a tube
failure and leakage of fission products.

Ed Bradley, CHP

----- Original Message -----
From: D J Hornsey <bssdjh@bath.ac.uk>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 6:50 AM
Subject: Sellafield


>
>   Dear Radsafers,
>
>             As you will all be aware, BNFL is going through the mill in
> the UK media at present at its apparent short-circuiting of quality
> control tests on MOX fuel pellets. The information gleaned from the more
> responsible newspapers quite often highlights safety issues associated
> with fuel pellets that were of variable sizes. Can any of you nuclear
> power people out there tell me what the possible safety implications are
> to a power plant using such malformed pellets. From what I gather each
> pellet is only 13 mm long and should be cylindical in profile, but
> according to the Independent today, many were flower-pot in profile. How
> serious is this? Is it a potential safety issue or will it be more of a
> problem in energy efficiency gain in the whole plant?
>
>     Regards,
>
>          David Hornsey
>
>  **************************************
>  * David J. Hornsey, Radiation Safety.*
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