Effects of different parameters on the densities of uranium dioxide and uranium dioxide-gadolinium oxide fuels produced by the sol-gel technique

Journal Article · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995 · Nuclear Technology

OSTI ID:89650

Guenduez, G; Uslu, I; Oenal, I; Durmazucar, H H; Oeztuerk, T ^[1]; Aksit, A A; Kopuz, B; Can, F; Can, S; Uzmen, R ^[2]

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1. Orta Dogu Teknik Univ., Ankara (Turkey)
2. Cekmece Nuekleer Arastirma ve Egitim Merkezi, Istanbul (Turkey)

Uranium dioxide-gadolinium oxide fuel was produced by the sol-gel technique. The effects of different parameters such as calcination and reduction temperature, compaction pressure, particle size of powder, type of binder, sintering temperature, sintering atmosphere, and duration of sintering on pore size distribution were investigated. The experiments were carried out on three different fuels, (a) pure urania, (b) urania-gadolinia (10%), and (c) urania-gadolinia (10%)-titania (0.1%) doped fuel. It was observed that compaction pressure as low as 200 MPa is sufficient to obtain high-density pellets, while the use of binder or grinding the powder below 400 mesh does not affect densities. Reduction of powder at 1,000 K always gives lower density fuels than the powder reduced at 873 K. Sintering at high temperature and the use of a wet atmosphere each independently increases the fuel density.

• OSTI ID: 89650
• Journal Information: Nuclear Technology, Journal Name: Nuclear Technology Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 111; ISSN 0029-5450; ISSN NUTYBB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
COMPACTING
DENSITY
DOPED MATERIALS
GADOLINIUM OXIDES
MIXED OXIDE FUELS
NUCLEAR FUELS
PORE STRUCTURE
SOL-GEL PROCESS
TITANIUM OXIDES
URANIUM DIOXIDE