Ultrasonic decontamination of prototype fast breeder reactor fuel pins

Fuel pin decontamination is the process of removing particulates of radioactive material from its exterior surface. It is an important process step in nuclear fuel fabrication. It assumes more significance with plutonium bearing fuel known to be highly radio-toxic owing to its relatively longer biological half life and shorter radiological half life. Release of even minute quantity of plutonium oxide powder in the atmosphere during its handling can cause alarming air borne activity and may pose a severe health hazard to personnel working in the vicinity. Decontamination of fuel pins post pellet loading operation is thus mandatory before they are removed from the glove box for further processing and assembly. This paper describes the setting up of ultrasonic decontamination process, installed inside a custom built fume-hood in the production line, comprising of a cleaning tank with transducers, heaters, pin handling device and water filtration system and its application in cleaning of fuel pins for prototype fast breeder reactor. The cleaning process yielded a typical decontamination efficiency of more than 99%.