Device for fracturing silicon-carbide coatings on nuclear-fuel particles

Patent ·

OSTI ID:5290190

Turner, L J; Willey, M G; Tiegs, S M; Van Cleve, Jr, J E

This invention is a device for fracturing particles. It is designed especially for use in hot cells designed for the handling of radioactive materials. In a typical application, the device is used to fracture a hard silicon-carbide coating present on carbon-matrix microspheres containing nuclear-fuel materials, such as uranium or thorium compounds. To promote remote control and facilitate maintenance, the particle breaker is pneumatically operated and contains no moving parts. It includes means for serially entraining the entrained particles on an anvil housed in a leak-tight chamber. The flow rate of the gas is at a value effecting fracture of the particles; preferably, it is at a value fracturing them into product particulates of fluidizable size. The chamber is provided with an outlet passage whose cross-sectional area decreases in the direction away from the chamber. The outlet is connected tangentially to a vertically oriented vortex-flow separator for recovering the product particulates entrained in the gas outflow from the chamber. The invention can be used on a batch or continuous basis to fracture the silicon-carbide coatings on virtually all of the particles fed thereto.

• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• Assignee: TIC; ERA-05-030239; EDB-80-088155
• OSTI ID: 5290190
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
COATED FUEL PARTICLES
FRACTURING
REMOTE HANDLING EQUIPMENT
SILICON CARBIDES
COATINGS
FISSILE MATERIALS
SPENT FUELS
CARBIDES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
COMMINUTION
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUIPMENT
FISSIONABLE MATERIALS
FUEL PARTICLES
FUELS
MATERIALS
MATERIALS HANDLING EQUIPMENT
NUCLEAR FUELS
REACTOR MATERIALS
SILICON COMPOUNDS
050700* - Nuclear Fuels- Fuels Production & Properties