Consolidation of commercial-size UO2 fuel pellets using spark plasma sintering and microstructure/microchemical analysis. (9th July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gong, Bowen; Yao, Tiankai; Lu, Cai; Xu, Peng; Lahoda, Edward; Lian, Jie
• Is Part Of: MRS communications. Volume 8:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 979
• Page End: 987
• Publication Date: 2018-07-09
• Subjects: Materials -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1557/mrc.2018.121
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2159-6859

Abstract

Abstract: Abstract : The development of advanced fuel fabrication technologies is important for developing accident-tolerant fuels and engineering fuels for safer and more effective nuclear energy systems. In this work, commercial-size uranium dioxide (UO2 ) fuel pellets with a theoretical density of 95% were consolidated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1600°C for 5 min. Systematic investigations suggest uniform densification and stoichiometric UO2 with an ideal fluorite structure across the commercial-size fuel pellet, but with a distributed grain structure because of non-uniform distribution of temperature during sintering. This work demonstrates a great potential of using SPS for fabricating nuclear fuels at a cost-effective manner.