Fabrication of fuel elements for the PEC reactor

In the last few years the CNEN's Materials Technologies Laboratory has studied and developed the techniques for the fabrication of fuel elements for the PEC reactor. This activity, which has resulted in the fabrication of a certain number of such elements, was not limited to gaining fabrication experience, but was also intended to transfer knowledge from the design to the blueprint stage. In effect, the PEC fuel element comprises certain components of rather intricate design, whose fabrication by conventional methods is extremely complex and sometimes impossible. In other cases operational techniques had to be developed, such as the winding of the spacer wire over the rods, which have required the design of specific equipment and tooling. In both cases, original fabrication techniques were studied, which have produced highly satisfactory results. The aim of the activity was not so much the fabrication of elements as the study of fabrication methods and the optimizing of operational parameters. (auth)