Spherical Fuel Element Concept for Small Reactor Design

Fabrication of oxide pellets containing lumped Gd2O3using Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2for burnable absorber fuel applications

“…31 Yttria-stabilized zirconia was previously used as a surrogate for UO 2 in the fabrication studies of new fuel designs such spherical fuel element and inert matrix fuel, as well as in the fabrication studies of a porous oxide structure that resembles the high burnup structure of UO 2 . [32][33][34][35] Hoggan et al 23 studied the application of dry bag isostatic pressing to the fabrication process of nuclear fuel using 8YSZ as surrogate for UO 2 . A schematic diagram of the proposed designs is shown in Figure 1.…”