2. Fuel description

2.1 Constituents UO2 and PuO2

PuO ₂ powder comes from the irradiated fuel processing plant, where it is packaged in sealed cans, each containing around 3 kg of powder. It is fully characterized, physically, chemically and isotopically.

The UO ₂ powders used to date are all wet-processed from depleted or natural uranium U ₃ O ₈ . Two processes are used:

• "AUC" for powders from Siemens (no longer in production) or ABB;

• "ADU" for powders produced at Pierrelatte (COGEMA) in the TU2 workshop.

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