Preparation of UC0.07-0.10N0.90-0.93 spheres for TRISO coated fuel particles

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2014 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

OSTI ID:1133526

Collins, Jack Lee ^[1]; Hunt, Rodney Dale ^[1]; Johnson, Jared A ^[1]; Silva, Chinthaka M ^[1]; Lindemer, Terrence ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. Harbach Engineering and Solutions

The U.S. Department of Energy is considering a new nuclear fuel, which should be much more impervious during a loss of coolant accident. The fuel would consist of tristructural isotropic coated particles with dense uranium nitride (UN) kernels. The objectives of this effort are to make uranium oxide microspheres with adequately dispersed carbon nanoparticles and to convert these microspheres into UN kernels. Recent improvements to internal gelation process were successfully applied to the production of uranium gel spheres with different concentrations of carbon black. After the spheres were washed, a simple, two-step heat profile was used to produce kernels with a chemical composition of UC0.07 0.10N0.90 0.93. The first step involved heating the microspheres to 2023 K in a vacuum, and in the second step, the microspheres were held at 1873 K for 6 hrs in nitrogen.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: NE USDOE - Office of Nuclear Energy
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1133526
• Journal Information: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Journal Name: Journal of Nuclear Materials Vol. 448
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

internal gelation
uranium nitride spheres