Study on Characteristics of Recycled MOX Powder Suitable for Low Density Pellet Fabrication
- Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 4-33 Muramatsu, Tokai-mura, Ibaraki pref., 319-1194, murakami (Japan)
The fabrication technology for low density pellets was studied using three recycled MOX powders with different particle sizes (fine, medium-coarse and coarse). The coarse recycled powder has a larger effect on reducing the pellet density than the fine one.Many pores can be observed in the cross section image of the sintered pellet made with the coarse powder although pore-former was not added. It seems that the large number of relatively large interstices which exist between the coarse recycled powder particles and the rest of the raw powder particles are retained as stable pores in the sintered pellets. However, a high addition rate for the coarse recycled powder in feed powder leads to large densification by re-sintering. The degree of densification by re-sintering is also a function of the addition rate of pore-former when the coarse recycled powder was mixed in the raw powder. As a result, it is concluded that the pellets with 25 wt% of the coarse recycled powder and 1.3-1.5 wt% of pore-former acquire reasonable density and densification by re-sintering. By using the coarse recycled powder, the addition rate of pore-former can be reduced to satisfy the density specification of low density pellets (83-87%TD) and higher yield of good density products can be achieved due to the reduction of density deviation. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 20979645
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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