Post Irradiation Analysis of BWR and PWR Fuel Samples: Experimental Results and Their Interpretation

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) has carried out for many years destructive post irradiation analysis of samples from BWR and PWR fuel elements. A total of about 120 pellets with a burnup range from 3.5 to 37.5 GWD/MTU have been investigated. The main goal was to create a bank of qualified data on burnup and isotope buildup of spent fuels, to be used in the assessment of some Safeguards techniques. Non-destructive and destructive measurement methods should, in fact, be continously improved with the support of reference isotopic data. In particular, the Isotopic Correlation Technique can profit of the use of such traceable and qualified data. This report presents a summary of the last results of this activity, together with a discussion and a comparison between measured and calculated data.