FUEL ELEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR THE PEBBLE BED REACTOR. Progress Report for June 1960

Technical Report · Mon Oct 30 23:00:00 EST 1961

OSTI ID:4147172

Radiochemical analysis of a special nonvolatile daughter fission-product trap located close to the FA-22 specimen revealed leakage rates of short-lived isotopes, such as 3.2m Kr/sup 89/, 16s Xe/sup 140/, and 1.7s Xe/sup 141/, of the order of 10/sup -7/ which is the same order of magnitude as previously reported for the longer-lived Xe and Kr. This suggests that the observed leakage is predominantly due to uranium contamination external to the particle coatings. Additional batches of coated particles were prepared and preliminary evaluation showed promise. These batches included Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ on ThO/sub 2//UO/sub 2/ particles, a thick Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ coating on U0/sub 2/ where an inner portion of the coating consists of porous Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ which can store fission gases and minimize possible thermal-cycle rupture problems, and a thick pyrolyticcarbon coating on UC/sub 2/. Certain pellets of natural graphite and a resin binder were found to have rather good crushing strength while achieving graphite densities in excess of 2.0 g/cm/sup 3/. Assembly of components for the in-pile loop continued. (auth)

• Research Organization: Sanderson and Porter, New York
• NSA Number: NSA-15-003001
• OSTI ID: 4147172
• Report Number(s): TID-6845; S & P-1964-22
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALUMINUM OXIDES
CARBON
COATING
CONTAMINATION
CRUSHING
DENSITY
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUEL CANS
FUEL ELEMENTS
GASES
GRAPHITE
IN PILE LOOPS
KRYPTON 89
LEAKS
METALS, CERAMICS, AND OTHER MATERIALS
PEBBLE BED
PELLETS
POROSITY
RADIOCHEMISTRY
RESINS
STORAGE
TENSILE PROPERTIES
THORIUM OXIDES
URANIUM
URANIUM CARBIDES
URANIUM DIOXIDE
XENON 140
XENON 141