Synthesis and Characterization of UO2 Feedstocks containing Controlled Dopants
Within the Advanced Fuels Campaign, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is looking into the fabrication of high-performance UO2 fuel candidates. The aim of this study was to develop a suitable fabrication avenue to synthesize UO2 feedstock with controlled dopants to enhance UO2 grain growth within these fuel candidates. Enlarged UO2 grains in a nuclear fuel pellet are expected to slow down fission gas diffusion, which would be a preferred property for a high-performance fuel compared to fission gas diffusion in standard UO2. The unique fabrication processes for microspherical feedstocks via the internal gelation approach at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been developed further to enable the dopant uptake within the UO2 microspheres. Mn and Cr were added via infiltration and/or addition of the dopant to the starting broth of an internal gelation experiment. The dopants were added in various amounts (ppm) into UO2. Even though large amounts of these dopants volatized during sintering, scanning electron microscopy images of the microstructure revealed large UO2 grains of up to 80 μm for the pellets that were prepared from doped microspherical feedstocks.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1495946
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/SPR-2019/1067
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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