Development of a Fabrication Method for Oxide Fuels Containing Metallic Dopant Materials

Abstract

  In order to develop an innovative fuel fabrication method for americium-containing oxide fuels, a feasibility study of metallic U- and Mo-doped oxide pellet fuels with extruding granulated oxides was conducted using UO₂. In this study, the hot-press sintering method was adopted as a fuel pelletizing process. To investigate the thermochemical characteristics of the pellets, a hot-press sintering test of the U- and Mo-doped UO₂ powder samples was carried out. The thermal conductivity of the sintered material was evaluated. Results showed that the U and Mo doping processes reduce oxygen potential and improve thermal conductivity, respectively. It is, therefore, concluded that the U- and Mo-doped oxide fuel pellets can be successfully fabricated using the hot-press method. Also in this study, to investigate the sinterability of the extruding granulated oxides, a hot-press sintering test of the U- and Mo-doped UO₂ granules formed by the extruding granulation method was carried out. Results revealed that the granulated substances formed by the extruding granulation method have preferable sintering characteristics.