Oxygen potential and oxygen diffusion data for guiding the manufacture of MOX fuel for fast neutron reactors

Vauchy, R.; Horii, Yuta ; Hirooka, Shun ; Akashi, Masatoshi ; Sunaoshi, Takeo*; Nakamichi, Shinya ; Saito, Kosuke

Controlling the Oxygen/Metal ratio during the sintering of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuels is strategic, especially for Fast Neutron Reactors. Within the frame of understanding the reduction of MOX during its sintering, new oxygen potential data and oxygen chemical diffusion coefficients of U $_{0.698}$ Pu $_{0.2892}$ Am $_{0.013}$ O $_{2-x}$ were determined by thermogravimetry between 1773 and 1923 K on elongated cylindrical dense pellets. An innovative experimental protocol was developed to correlate oxygen chemical diffusion to Oxygen/Metal ratio ranges, and thus to the underlying defect chemistry. Oxygen self-diffusion coefficients were also obtained by combining the oxygen chemical diffusion coefficients with defect chemistry. These new data provide a better understanding of the mechanisms and kinetics of MOX reduction during its manufacturing as a sodium-cooled fast reactor fuel.

Language	:	English
Journal	:	Journal of Nuclear Materials
Volume	:	616
Number	:
Pages	:	p.156115_1 - 156115_16
Publication Year/Month	:	2025/10
Meeting title	:
Held date	:
Location (city)	:
Location (country)	:
Patent information	:
PDF	:
Paper URL	:	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.156115
DOI for research data	:	Link to research data related to this paper/report.
Keywords	:	MOX Fuel; Oxygen diffusion; Nuclear fuel; Plutonium; MOX; Fast Reactor
Research Facility	:
Press Release	:
JAEA R&D Navigator	:
Cooperating Institute	:

Accesses	:	- Accesses
Web of Science® Times Cited Count	:	Times Cited Count： If you would like to get the latest times cited, please access the Web of Science®. http://www.webofknowledge.com/wos
InCites™	:
Altmetrics	:

Registration No. : AA20250185
JAEA Abstracts No. : 53000994
Paper Submission No. : 29819

[CLARIVATE ANALYTICS], [WEB OF SCIENCE], [HIGHLY CITED PAPER & CUP LOGO] and [HOT PAPER & FIRE LOGO] are trademarks of Clarivate Analytics, and/or its affiliated company or companies, and used herein by permission and/or license.