Design and Procurement Support for Fuel Pebbles Fabrication for PBMR

PBMR Ltd contracted NUKEM to develop the design of a fuel fabrication plant to produce spherical fuel elements for high temperature reactor (HTR) at Pelindaba site and support the customer during procurement, installation and commissioning stages.

The project is split in two phases:

• Phase I: Basic Design of the facility, including main processes: fabrication of kernel, fuel spheres and matrix material, uranium production and management of effluents. Phase I was completed with development of HAZOP II.
• Phase II: Detail Design of the facility covering the above processes. The project was suspended in 2010 for economic reasons.

NUKEM provided the following services:

• Process definition, Basic and Detail Design for the aforementioned processes
• Criticality analysis and safe geometric configuration of equipment
• Completion of HAZOP II
• Preparation of a licencing package
• Development of the procurement specification for the equipment that fall within NUKEM's scope of supply
• In addition, NUKEM was contracted to provide support to PBMR Ltd with design and development of a new coating facility to close the gap between the production of kernels and fuel spheres.