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Consolidation of commercial-size UO2 fuel pellets using spark plasma sintering and microstructure/microchemical analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

Bowen Gong Open the ORCID record for Bowen Gong [Opens in a new window] ,
Tiankai Yao Open the ORCID record for Tiankai Yao [Opens in a new window] ,
Cai Lu ,
Peng Xu ,
Edward Lahoda  and
Jie Lian
Bowen Gong
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
Tiankai Yao
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
Cai Lu
Affiliation:
Westinghouse Electrical Company, Hopkins, SC 29061, USA
Peng Xu
Affiliation:
Westinghouse Electrical Company, Hopkins, SC 29061, USA
Edward Lahoda
Affiliation:
Westinghouse Electrical Company, Hopkins, SC 29061, USA
Jie Lian*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA
*
Address all correspondence to Jie Lian at lianj@rpi.edu
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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.

Type
Research Letters
Information
MRS Communications , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 979 - 987
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Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2018 

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