Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1999 International RERTR Meeting

Fabrication and Characterization of Atomized U-Mo Powder Dispersed Fuel Compacts for the RERTR-3 Irradiation Test

Jong-Man Park, Young-Soo Han, Ki-Hwan Kim, Yoon-Sang Lee and Chang-Kyu Kim,
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
150, Dukjin-Dong, Yusong-Ku, Taejon, 305-353, Korea

Abstract

The RERTR-3 irradiation test of nano-plates will be conducted in the Advanced Test Reactor(ATR). 49 compacts with a uranium density of 8 gU/cc consist of 7 different atomized uranium-molybdenum alloy powders such as as-atomized U-10Mo, phase decomposed U-10Mo (alpha+gamma), homogenized U-10Mo, U-7Mo, U-6Mo, U-6.1Mo-0.9Ru, and U-6Mo-1.7Os. 25 fuel plates, referred to as nano-plates, were produced with atomized fuel compacts at ANL-W. The relationship between the volume fraction of fuel and the green density of the compacts was established. The relative density of the compacts increases with decreasing volume fraction of fuel powder. The compressibility of comminuted powder compacts was larger than that of the atomized powder compacts due to the fragmentation of comminuted particles. The green strength of comminuted powder compacts is higher than that of the atomized powder compact. This seems to have resulted from the smaller pore size and the larger contact area between the comminuted fuel powders and Al powders. It is suggested that the compacting condition adjustment be required to fabricate the atomized powder compacts having comparable green strength.