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In the first week of November, we took part in preparations for further shipments of spent fuel (SF) from MNSR (Miniature Neutron Source Reactor) research reactors to China. During this event, we demonstrated the procedures for loading the irradiated core into the transport packaging (TP) to specialists and regulatory authorities from Pakistan and Syria, from where similar shipments are planned in the coming years.
The training, held at a specialised training centre in Ghana, forms part of an international project for the removal of irradiated fuel from small Chinese-designed MNSR reactors located in Africa and Asia and its return to China. The aim of the project is to reduce the global risk of the misuse of nuclear materials for the production of nuclear weapons or for terrorist purposes, as the research reactors are subsequently operated with cores containing only low-enriched uranium.
Under the MNSR programme, our team led by Josef Podlaha has already participated in shipments to China from Ghana (2016) and Nigeria (2018), helping to remove a total of 2.2 kg of highly enriched uranium from MNSR reactors. Further removals are planned from Syria, Pakistan and Iran. The transport project to China is a continuation of earlier projects involving the shipment of spent fuel from the Czech Republic and other former Eastern Bloc countries to Russia, in which ÚJV Řež took part between 2005 and 2015.
