• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.268-268
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• 1999

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.482-493
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• 2002

The MOX fuel for LWR is fabricated either by direct mechanical blending of UO$_2$ and PuO$_2$ or by two stage mixing. Hence Pu-rich particles, whose Pu concentrations are higher than pellet average one and whose size distribution depends on a specific fabrication method, are inevitably dispersed in MOX pellet. Due to the inhomogeneous microstructure of MOX fuel, the thermal conductivity of LWR MOX fuel scatters from 80 to 100 % of UO$_2$ fuel. This paper describes a mechanistic thermal conductivity model for MOX fuel by considering this inhomogeneous microstructure and presents an explanation for the wide scattering of measured MOX fuel＇s thermal conductivity. The developed model has been incorporated into a KAERI＇s fuel performance code, COSMOS, and then evaluated using the measured in-pile data for MOX fuel. The database used for verification consists of homogeneous MOX fuel at beginning-of-life and inhomogeneous MOX fuel at high turnup. The COSMOS code predicts the thermal behavior of MOX fuel well except for the irradiation test accompanying substantial fission gas release. The over-prediction with substantial fission gas release seems to suggest the need for the introduction of a recovery factor to a term that considers the burnup effect on thermal conductivity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.541-554
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• 1998

A computer code COSMOS has been developed based on the CARO-D5 for the thermal analysis of LWR UO$_2$ and MOX fuel rod under steady-state and transient operating conditions. The main purpose of the COSMOS, which considers high turnup characteristics such as thermal conductivity degradation with turnup and rim formation at the outer part of fuel pellet, is to calculate temperature profile across fuel pellet and fission gas release up to high burnup. A new mechanistic fission gas release model developed based on physical processes has been incorporated into the code. In addition, the features of MOX fuel such as change in themo-mechanical properties and the effect of microscopic heterogeneity on fission gas release have been also taken into account so that it can be applied to MOX fuel. Another important feature of the COSMOS is that it can analyze fuel segment refabricated from base irradiated fuel rods in commercial reactors. This feature makes it possible to analyze database obtained from international projects such as the MALDEN and RISO, many of which were collected from refabricated fuel segments. The capacity of the COSMOS has been tested with some number of experimental results obtained from the HALDEN, RISO and FIGARO programs. Comparison with the measured data indicates that, although the COSMOS gives reasonable agreement, the current models need to be improved. This work is being performed using database available from the OECD/NEA.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.77-84
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• 2005

A voloxidizer for a hot cell demonstration, that handles spent fuels of a high radiation level in a limited space should be small and spent fuel powders should not be dispersed out of the equipment involved. In this study a density rate equation as well as the Stokes'equation has been proposed in order to obtain the theoretical terminal velocity of powders. The terminal velocity of U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ has been predicted by using the terminal velocity of SiO$_{2}$, and then determination has been the optimum air flow rate which is able to prevent powders from scattering. An equation which has shown a relationship between theoretical terminal velocities of U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ and SiO$_{2}$ has been derived with the help of the Stokes'equation, and then an experimental verification made for the theoretical Stokes' equation of SiO$_{2}$ by means of an experimental device made of acryl. The theoretical terminal velocity based on the proposed density rate equation has been verified by detecting U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ powders in a filter installed in the mock-up voloxidizer. As the results, the optimum air flow rates seem to be 20 LPM by the Stokes'equation while they are 14.5 L/min by the density rate equation. At the experiments with the mock-up voloxidizer, a trace amount of U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ seems to be detectable at the air flow rate of 14.5 L/min by the density rate equation, but U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ powders of 7$\mu$m diameter seem detectable at the air flow rate of 20 L/min by the Stokes'equation. It is revealed that 14.5 L/min is the optimum air flowe rate which is capable of preventing U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ powders from scattering in the UO$_{2}$ voloxidizer and the proposed density rate equation is proper to calculate the terminal velocity of U$_{3}$O$_{8}$ powders.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.119-125
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• 2020

One of the promising candidates for accident-tolerant fuel (ATF), a ceramic microcell fuel, which can be distinguished by an unusual cell-like microstructure (UO₂ grain cell surrounded by a doped oxide cell wall), is being developed. This study deals with the microstructural observation of the constituent phases and the wetting behaviors of the cell wall materials in three kinds of ceramic microcell UO₂ pellets: Si-Ti-O (STO), Si-Cr-O (SCO), and Al-Si-Ti-O (ASTO). The chemical and physical states of the cell wall materials are estimated by HSC Chemistry and confirmed by experiment to be mixtures of Si-O and Ti-O for the STO; Si-O and Cr-O for SCO; and Si-O, Ti-O, and Al-Si-O for the ASTO. From their morphology at triple junctions, UO₂ grains appear to be wet by the Si-O or Al-Si-O rather than other oxides, providing a benefit on the capture-ability of the ceramic microcell cell wall. The wetting behavior can be explained by the relationships between the interface energy and the contact angle.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 1962

Bench-scale horizontal cation-permeable membrane cells were constructed to study the effect of cell dimensions on the efficiency of electrolytic reduction of uranyl sulphate solutions flowing continuously over a mercury cathode. Current efficiencies were determined for various cells having length-to-width ratios of 10/1 to 40/1, and for catholyte solutions containing from 20 to 100g $U_3O_8/l$ in sulphuric acid. Optimum current density and solution flowrate were determined under these conditions. The effects of the nitrate and chloride ions were briefly examined.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.840-843
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• 2002

The dry pulverizing/Mixing device is used to deal with the spent fuels for the safe disposal. The separated pellets from hulls by a slitting device are put and oxidized from UO$_2$ solid pellet to U$_3$O$\_$8/ powder in the device. The device have been developed based on a voloxidation method which is one of several dry de-cladding methods. We have benchmarked dry de-cladding methods, analyzed applicability to the advanced spent fuel management process, integrated and compared several configuration, and finally derived detailed specifications proper to requirements for the device. Also, thermal characteristics of the device such as thermal stress and strain have been analyzed by the commercial software, 1-DEAS, and the reliability of the results have been verified by the KOLAS(Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme). The UO$_2$ solid pellets are put in the device which has a capacity of 20 kgHM per a batch, heated up about 600$^{\circ}C$ in the air environment. Then, the UO$_2$ solid pellets are oxidized into the U$_3$O$\_$8/ powder, and the powder is collected in a special vessel. The device has been designed and developed as fellows: the multi-staged fine hole meshes are used to reduce the size of the powder gradually, heat and air(oxygen) are supplied continuously to reduce the reaction time, and slight vibration effect are applied to collect powder cling to the device.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.14-24
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• 2003

This work investigates the effects of Cr$_2$O$_3$ and oxygen potential on grain growth and densification of UO$_2$ pellets. Powder mixtures of UO$_2$ and 0.03-0.4wt% Cr$_2$O$_3$ were pressed and sintered in 3 different gas atmospheres: the $H_2O$-to-H$_2$ ratios were 5$\times$10$^{-4}$ , 1$\times$10$^{-2}$ and 3$\times$10$^{-2}$ In the first gas atmosphere the Cr$_2$O$_3$ contents below 0.2 wt% have an insignificant effect on grain size, but the Cr$_2$O$_3$ contents more than 0.3 wt% promote grain growth in the inner zone of a pellet but not in the outer zone. In both the second and third atmospheres, the grain size increases with the Cr$_2$O$_3$ content. With the same level of Cr$_2$O$_3$ content the grain size is larger in the second atmosphere than in the third. Sintering behavior and developed microstructure are discussed in terms of the reduction of C$r^2$O$^3$ to Cr, the dissolution of C$r^2$O$^3$ in UO$_2$, and liquid phase sintering.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 1991

The microstructure and pore characteristics have been studied on the sintered UO$_2$pellet which was made of the UO$_2$powder manufactured via AUC process. The open porosity decrease with the density and is nearly annihilated above the density of 10.45 g/㎤. The round pore smaller than 3 $\mu$m exist In all densities. The large and elongated pore appears additionally In low density The pore in low density is more elongated than the pore in high density The distribution of the pore area versus the pore size is monomodal and shows its peak on the pore size of 2 to 3 $\mu$m. As the density decreases, the related area of large pore Increases.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.116-128
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• 1985

Considering vacancy generation and migration in grain and sink at grain boundary, a mechanistic densification model which is dependent on UO$_2$ temperature and microstructure has been developed. This densification model is a function of time, fission rate, temperature, density, pore size distribution and grain size. The resultant equation derived in this model which is different from Assmann and Stehle's resultant equations for four temperature regions, can be applied directly for all the pellet temperatures. The predictions of the present densification model very well agreed with the experimental data. This model well predicts absolute magnitude and trend in comparison with the empirical algorithm used in KFEDA code.