Feasibility study on fabrication of MOX fuel pellet by blending recycle powder with granulated powder

Mizuno, Mineo; Sudo, Katsuo ; Takeuchi, Kentaro ; Okita, Takatoshi; Kihara, Yoshiyuki

The short process is considered to be a main concept which has high feasibility in Fast Reactor Cycle Technology Development (FaCT). In this study, a small-scale fabrication test was carried out to investigate characteristic of MOX pellet made of granulated MOX powder blended with dry-route recycle powder, for the first time, as a basic test concern with the short process. As the results, it was found that the sintered density of the pellet clearly depends on the preparing conditions and content of recycle powder. The results is intended to be utilized in the investigation of engineering-scale test conditions.