Behavior of irradiated uranium carbide pellets at high burnup
From symposium on fuel and elements for fast reactors; Brussels, Belgium (2 Jul 1973). Work performed under United States--Euratom Fast Reactor Program. Since substoichiometric monocarbide swells due to the presence of a metallic phase and the sesquicarbide is not thermodynamically compatible with the austenitic steels, it is essential to manufacture a monocarbide which is as pure as possible. In order to extend the small domain of existence of this single phase fuel, so as to facilitate the fabrication, a research program was undertaken at the CEN/SCK regarding the stabilization of the monocarbide. Vanadium and chromium were retained as stabilizers and added to the carbide so as to obtain a three-phase fuel; MC-VC-V/sub 2/C and erfect compatibility of these two types of fuel with austenitic steel. The oxygen content was taken into consideration as an extra parameter, since any strict limitation of this content would inevitably increase the fabrication cost. In order to obtain a rapid comparison of the behavior of these fuels, a series of uranium carbide pellets, the burnup of which ranges from 65.000 to 110.000 MWd/t, were irradiated in POM- STUC devices. 17 references. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Centre d'Etude de l'Energie Nucleaire, Mol (Belgium); Commission of the European Communities, Karlsruhe (F.R. Germany). European Inst. for Transuranium Elements
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Sponsor not identified
- NSA Number:
- NSA-29-009355
- OSTI ID:
- 4934957
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-730726--2; SM--173-1
- Country of Publication:
- Belgium
- Language:
- English
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