U.S. nuclear fuel development company Lightbridge Corporation said Monday that it had moved forward on plans to build a second irradiation testing rig for its fuel rods at the Halden research reactor in Norway operated by the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE).
During a recent visit to the reactor, Lightbridge inspected the hardware components manufactured by IFE for the first irradiation rig that will host a four-rod bundle of the company's quad-lobe fuel rods. These will be placed into the Halden reactor. The hardware allows technicians to remove partially irradiated fuel rods and insert new ones as a method of obtaining “early collection of data from post-irradiation examination,” Lightbridge said in a statement.
The visit also included signing task orders for design and fabrication of a second irradiation rig that will also have the capacity of handling another four-lobe bundle of Lightbridge fuel rods. The second rig will be designed to constrain radial expansion of the four-rod bundle to simulate conditions inside a commercial fuel assembly, the company noted.