Nuclear fuel

In nuclear power plant the fuel contain fissile component (U-235 and/or Pu- 239) that must be treated in order to be used.
Nuclear fuel undergoes a strict process to obtain the right material.
ALD France intervenes at different stage of this process and has a long experience in the heat treatment of the fuel pellet.

There are three main stages in the fabrication of the nuclear fuel structures used in LWRs and PHWRs:

• Producing pure uranium dioxide (UO2) from incoming UF6 or UO3.
• Producing high-density accurately shaped ceramic pellets.
• Producing the rigid metal framework for the fuel assembly – mainly from zirconium alloy; that will contains the fuel pellets, sealing them and assembling the rods into the final fuel assembly structure.