Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations

Jong-Hwan Kim ¹, Jung-Won Lee ², Ki-Hwan Kim ², Chan-Bock Lee ²

Affiliations
1 Next Generation Fuel Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon 305-353, KP
2 Next Generation Fuel Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon 305-353, KR

Abstract

U-10wt%Zr spherical particles for use as particulate fuel were prepared by centrifugal atomization and subjected to pressureless sintering, which is one of the simplest powder processing techniques. At sintering temperature of 1100°C for 30 or 60 min, all samples ranging from +50 to −325 mesh showed no apparent bonding between the particles. However, at 1150°C (80 min), all samples formed a bulk body and the microstructures showed apparent sintering stages. Particularly, sample B (50-70 mesh) and sample C (70-100 mesh) showed pore characteristics suitable for a particulate fuel. The results suggest that pressureless sinterability for U-10Zr particulate fuel can be improved by adding small-size (-325 mesh) particles.

Keywords

English

Full Text