A 50 cm long, CANFLEX, advanced-fuel, bundle mounted on a plastic stand. The 43-element, fuel bundle has been designed to obtain maximum fuel burnup in Advanced CANDU Reactors (ACRs) while also reducing the peak-power rating. It is the first fuel design in the CANDU fuel series to use two different-sized elements. The central eight elements have a diameter of 13.5 mm while the thirty-five outer elements are 11.5 mm in diameter. CANFLEX fuel also features CANLUB, a thin graphite coating on the inside of the fuel sheath that is used to reduce stresses on the element sheath if/when cracks develop in the ceramic fuel pellets.
