Methods for making a porous nuclear fuel element

Youchison, Dennis L; Williams, Brian E; Benander, Robert E

Title: Methods for making a porous nuclear fuel element

Patent · Tue Dec 30 00:00:00 EST 2014

OSTI ID:1166763

Youchison, Dennis L; Williams, Brian E; Benander, Robert E

Porous nuclear fuel elements for use in advanced high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors (HTGR's), and to processes for fabricating them. Advanced uranium bi-carbide, uranium tri-carbide and uranium carbonitride nuclear fuels can be used. These fuels have high melting temperatures, high thermal conductivity, and high resistance to erosion by hot hydrogen gas. Tri-carbide fuels, such as (U,Zr,Nb)C, can be fabricated using chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) to simultaneously deposit each of the three separate carbides, e.g., UC, ZrC, and NbC in a single CVI step. By using CVI, the nuclear fuel may be deposited inside of a highly porous skeletal structure made of, for example, reticulated vitreous carbon foam.

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Research Organization:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

DOE Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

Assignee:: Sandia Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)

Patent Number(s):: 8,920,871

Application Number:: 14/011,726

OSTI ID:: 1166763

Resource Relation:: Patent File Date: 2013 Aug 27

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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