Abstract
The current generation of fully ceramic microencapsulated fuels, consisting of Tristructural Isotropic fuel particles embedded in a silicon carbide matrix, is fabricated by hot pressing. Matrix powder feedstock is comprised of alumina-yttria additives thoroughly mixed with silicon carbide nanopowder using polyethyleneimine as a dispersing agent. Fuel compacts are fabricated by hot pressing the powder-fuel particle mixture at a temperature of 1800-1900°C using compaction pressures of 10-20 MPa. Detailed microstructural characterization of the final fuel compacts shows that oxide additives are limited in extent and are distributed uniformly at silicon carbide grain boundaries, at triple joints between silicon carbide grains, and at the fuel particle-matrix interface.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 268-276 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 426 |
| Issue number | 1-3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2012 |
Funding
The work presented in this manuscript was supported by the Advanced Fuels Campaign of the Fuel Cycle R&D program in the Office of Nuclear Energy, US Department of Energy. The HF3300 TEM/STEM and JEOL6500 FEG SEM were supported by ORNL’s Shared Research Equipment (ShaRE) User Facility, which is sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. Efforts by Shawn Reeves and John Henry, ORNL, for TEM specimen preparation and zeta-potential measurement, respectively, are gratefully acknowledged.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Office of Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Scientific User Facilities Division | |
| US Department of Energy | |
| Office of Nuclear Energy | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory |