Development of Manufacturing Process and Testing of PWR Nuclear Fuel PIN Prototypes

The manufacturing and testing of PWR nuclear fuel pin prototype have been conducted that included manufacturing of several components, such as end fittings, end plugs, spring retainers, and springs/plenum. The stages of the component manufacturing development start from design, component manufacturing process, and component testing. The material used for making this prototype was stainless steel SS-304. The design was done by redrawing the pin component; the manufacturing process uses a CNC Lathe, 3 and 5-axis CNC Milling, and EDM Drill to make component holes. Product dimension testing of the pin prototype was carried out using digital capillaries with medium tolerance quality standards. End plug dimension testing was carried out at 18 test points, end fitting at 16 test points, spring retaining at 7 test points, and spring components 8 at test points. The dimension test results show that the components are still within the specified tolerance limits. The spring strength test was done with 4-5 times the weight of the fuel or a test limit of 1 kg, The spring constant value was 2.5614 – 2.9459 N/mm. The surface roughness value was an average of 0.399 µm. The roughness of this component is still within the existing standard limits, which is below 0.8 µm.