Development of a fabrication method for oxide fuels containing metallic dopant materials

Ishii, Tetsuya; Yoshimochi, Hiroshi; Tanaka, Kenya

In order to develop an innovative fuel fabrication method for americium containing oxide fuels, a feasibility study of metallic U and Mo-doped oxide fuel concept with extruding granulated oxide material was conducted using UO. In the concept, it is expected that doped U should reduce the effective oxygen potential and doped Mo should increase the thermal conductivity of the fuel. In this study, sintering tests of U and Mo-doped UO powder were done and thermal conductivities of the sintered material were evaluated. From the results, it can be seen that the doped U and Mo would function as a oxygen potential reducer and thermal conductivity improver, respectively. And it can be seen that the U and Mo doped oxide fuel pellets would be fabricated successfully using hot pressing. Also, from the results of a sintering test of U and Mo-doped extruding granulated UO, it can be seen that the extruding granulated substances have a preferable sintering characteristic.