CANDU in China first to directly use recovered uranium

Over the next six months,a total of 24 Natural Uranium Equivalent (NUE) fuel bundles will be inserted into two separate fuel channels at the Qinshan Unit 1 reactor in Haiyan,China. NUE fuel is made by mixing recovered uranium from spent fuel of light water reactors with depleted uranium from enrichment plant tails. The irradiation of all 24 NUE bundles will be completed in approximately 12 months.

This commercial demonstration of NUE fuel is a first-of-a-kind advanced fuel collaborative effort for the parties and highlights the beginning of the engineering application of CANDU advanced fuel cycles, stated AECL President and Chief Executive Officer,Hugh MacDiarmid. It establishes CANDUs ability to utilize alternative fuel cycles and demonstrates the strong synergy between CANDU technology and light water reactor technology.

The commercial demonstration of NUE fuel in the CANDU reactor is the final phase of a three-phase joint research project between AECL and its three Chinese partners,TQNPC,NPIC and CNNFC. The project was initiated in 2008 to explore the use of recovered uranium from light water reactors in a CANDU reactor and to prove that it is the simplest,most cost-effective and environmentally-friendly process to utilize alternative fuel sources.