Selective sampling was conducted on three fuel pellet stacks that were manufactured by the reference process for the TOPAZ‐II reactor. The sampling and inspection of approximately two hundred fuel pellets were jointly conducted by US and Russian specialists. The sampling activity was conducted to evaluate the fuel characterization and sampling methods, and to examine the as‐fabricated characteristics of the fuel. The inspection procedure allowed studies of pellets from various batches of initial powder and from various sintering batches. The following characteristics were evaluated: pellet dimensions, O/U, isotopic composition, impurity content, and macro‐ and micro‐structure. © 1995American Institute of Physics