Preparation of bulk‐nanostructured UO 2 pellets using high‐pressure spark plasma sintering for LWR fuel safety assessment

Nuclear fuel undergoes a significant restructuration during its lifetime in the nuclear reactor. Especially at the rim of the pellet, large UO 2 grains disintegrate into a nanosized material. In this paper, we focus on the preparation of bulk UO 2 with grain sizes below 100 nm to investigate the phy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Ceramic Society 2017-04, Vol.100 (4), p.1269-1274
Main Authors: Tyrpekl, Vaclav, Cologna, Marco, Vigier, Jean‐Francois, Cambriani, Andrea, De Weerd, Wim, Somers, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Nuclear fuel undergoes a significant restructuration during its lifetime in the nuclear reactor. Especially at the rim of the pellet, large UO 2 grains disintegrate into a nanosized material. In this paper, we focus on the preparation of bulk UO 2 with grain sizes below 100 nm to investigate the physico‐chemical properties of this so‐called “high burn up structure” ( HBS ). Preparation of bulk nanocrystalline materials is a challenge that can be overcome using the high‐pressure spark plasma sintering ( HP SPS ) technique. In‐house developed HP SPS with 500 MPa applied pressure was used for compaction of 11 nm UO 2 powder obtained by oxalate conversion. The procedure yielded dense (>90%) compacts with grain size as low as 34 nm for samples sintered at 800°C.
ISSN:0002-7820
1551-2916
DOI:10.1111/jace.14647