Idaho National Laboratory's Moran Test Bed Completes Preparations for Deployment of Spent Fuel Decladding Mobile Skid

en.Wedoany.com Reported - A mobile skid dedicated to processing and stripping spent nuclear fuel cladding has been officially declared ready for operation at the Moran Nuclear Fuels Test Facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Funding for the fabrication of this skid system came from the Athena Initiative, launched in 2022 under the Nonproliferation Stewardship Program of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and is intended to provide critical scientific research support for the United States' nonproliferation strategy.

The Moran Test Bed is located in the former PBF-622 building within INL's Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex. It is a pilot-scale research facility focused on in-depth study of the Plutonium Uranium Reduction Extraction (PUREX) process. Although PUREX wet reprocessing technology has been widely used in commercial spent fuel cycles in some overseas countries, the U.S. commercial reprocessing route was effectively halted in the 1970s due to concerns over nuclear proliferation risks; the decladding of spent fuel at the Moran facility is intended to provide validation support for building nuclear security infrastructure and training professionals in nuclear material nonproliferation.

The skid system was collaboratively designed and fabricated by Idaho National Laboratory together with Integrated Solutions & Designs and Campbell Technical Services over a period of 20 months. It was delivered to the laboratory in April 2026 and successfully completed several months of comprehensive demonstration and validation. Before experiments can be conducted, the metal cladding on the outer layer of nuclear fuel, which serves to prevent corrosion and block the release of fission products, must be effectively separated from the inner uranium fuel pellets; this skid equipment achieves efficient mechanical removal of cladding through multiple processes applied to spent fuel rods, including crimping, chopping, and decladding.

In the initial operational phase, the device will first be used to process Magnox fuel, a gas-cooled reactor fuel type developed in the United Kingdom in the mid-20th century. The skid equipment successfully completed functional validation of crimping and chopping on Magnox fuel on May 5 and June 2 of this year. Although the world's last Magnox reactor was retired at the end of 2015, the remaining spent fuel is still used by various parties for conversion into Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX) or for scientific research testing; the batch of fuel used for testing at Idaho National Laboratory was transferred from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in Greece through coordinated scheduling by NNSA's Mobile Packaging Program and the Office of Nuclear Materials Verification.

Unlike the zirconium alloy commonly used in conventional commercial light water reactor fuel, Magnox fuel cladding uses a special alloy composed of metals such as magnesium and aluminum. Kevin Lyon, Senior Manager of Radiochemistry and Nuclear Measurements at Idaho National Laboratory, emphasized that the skid equipment adopts a highly versatile and modular design, and its key electromechanical units can be flexibly disassembled, adjusted, repositioned, or technologically upgraded in the future, and is not limited to processing only a single fuel type such as Magnox. According to long-term plans, in addition to the already operational Moran platform, Idaho National Laboratory will also rely on the Athena Initiative to build a second glovebox test platform for high transuranic (TRU) elements named "Beartooth," which is expected to be officially commissioned in 2028.