Fabrication of UN microsphere kernels for Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated fuel
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831-6063 (United States)
Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated (FCM) fuel is of interest to the U.S. Department of Energy's Fuel Cycle Research and Development program as an Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF). The FCM design uses a TRISO (Tri-Structural Isotropic) particle with a ZrO{sub 2} surrogate kernel, embedded in a dense SiC matrix. TRISO technology, originally developed for High Temperature Gas Reactors, has an established high level of performance retaining fission products and the SiC matrix of an FCM compact shows good steam oxidation behavior. This work reports on a fabrication route for producing dense UN microspheres used as the kernel of the TRISO particles in FCM fuel. The UN microspheres are of high purity and density with enough porosity to accommodate volatile fission products. Increasing the density is nevertheless of interest potentially allowing for an additional adjustable property for optimizing the fuel kernel and TRISO particle characteristics. Current work is focused on investigating the effect of a feedstock microstructure on final product density. (authors)
- OSTI ID:
- 22992096
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 114, Issue 1; Conference: Annual Meeting of the American Nuclear Society. Embedded topical meeting 'Nuclear fuels and structural material for the next generation nuclear reactors', New Orleans, LA (United States), 12-16 Jun 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 2 refs.; Available from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 United States; ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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