Criticality Safety Control for Nuclear Fuel Facilities in Japan

Abstract

The Research Committee on Criticality Safety of Nuclear Fuels (Apr., 1970-Mar., 1972), Atomic Energy Society of Japan, made a survey of the state of development and future prospects of the different processes constituting the nuclear fuel cycle in Japan, and on problems encountered in criticality safety. The Committee investigated the present status and problems concerning criticality safety design and control of (a) low and high-enriched uranium fuel fabrication facilities, (b) the plutonium fuel fabrication facility, and (c) the reprocessing plant. Also, the working groups in the Committee made a calculation on the criticality safety of the UO₂ powder storage facility, the ADU precipitation process, and of the dissolver of the reprocessing plant.
In keeping with the developing industrial scale of the different processes constituting the nuclear fuel cycle in Japan, it is urgently required to consider the organization of basic research in criticality safety, the training of specialists, the establishment of criteria or guide governing criticality safety, and the initiation of a data center and or an experimental facility.