Carbothermic Synthesis of 820 m UN Kernels: Literature Review, Thermodynamics, Analysis, and Related Experiments

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

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2013.10.036· OSTI ID:1133534

Lindemer, Terrence ^[1]; Voit, Stewart L ^[2]; Silva, Chinthaka M ^[2]; Besmann, Theodore M ^[2]; Hunt, Rodney Dale ^[2]

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1. Harbach Engineering and Solutions
2. ORNL

The U.S. Department of Energy is considering a new nuclear fuel that would be less susceptible to ruptures during a loss-of-coolant accident. The fuel would consist of tristructural isotropic coated particles with large, dense uranium nitride (UN) kernels. This effort explores many factors involved in using gel-derived uranium oxide-carbon microspheres to make large UN kernels. Analysis of recent studies with sufficient experimental details is provided. Extensive thermodynamic calculations are used to predict carbon monoxide and other pressures for several different reactions that may be involved in conversion of uranium oxides and carbides to UN. Experimentally, the method for making the gel-derived microspheres is described. These were used in a microbalance with an attached mass spectrometer to determine details of carbothermic conversion in argon, nitrogen, or vacuum. A quantitative model is derived from experiments for vacuum conversion to an uranium oxide-carbide kernel.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: NE USDOE - Office of Nuclear Energy
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1133534
• Journal Information: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Journal Name: Journal of Nuclear Materials Journal Issue: 1-3 Vol. 448; ISSN 0022-3115
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

carothermic
uranium nitride spheres