Documentation Package Supporting Fabrication of Doped UO₂ Samples for MiniFuel Irradiation and Fission Gas Release Benchmarking

Abstract

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is looking into the fabrication of high performance UO2 fuel candidates via the addition of dopants to the UO2. The addition of dopants is proposed to cause enlarged grains that will slow down fission gas release from the irradiated fuel pellet candidates. The Cr-doped UO2 pellets were fabricated from a microspherical feedstock, and enlarged grains were observed during the microstructural characterization. Irradiation under the Miniature Fuel program in the High Flux Isotope Reactor at ORNL will enable the study of irradiation response of such potential fuel candidates and will allow fission gas release benchmarking for these fuel candidates.

Transverse Rupture Strength of Uranium Dioxide

“…Samples were sintered in an alumina tube furnace (CM Furnaces, Inc.). The sintering profiles and atmospheres (UHP Ar, UHP Ar+6% H2, Ar+100ppm O2) are represented in Figure 4 below [15][16][17][18]. The sintering conditions used in this study were selected based upon those available in the open literature.…”