Preparation of potassium and metakaolin based geopolymer foam with millimeter sized open pores for hydrogen recombining catalyst supports

Utsumi, Taro*; Terasawa, Toshiharu*; Kudo, Isamu*; Suzuki, Tsuneo*; Nakayama, Tadachika*; Suematsu, Hisayuki*; Ogawa, Toru

Journal of the Ceramic Society of Japan, 128(2), p.96 - 100, 2020/02

https://doi.org/10.2109/jcersj2.19175

A method to control the millimeter-sized open porosity in geopolymer foam was attempted to produce hydrogen recombining supports for radioactive waste canisters. The raw materials were mixed with silicon powder as a foaming agent. Geopolymer foams with open porosities as high as 81% were obtained by a water bath treatment before pouring the slurry into the mold. The increase in the open porosity of geopolymer foam was observed by an increase in the water bath treatment time. It was thought that the viscosity of slurry increase induced the pores trapped inside the geopolymer foam and connected to form millimeter-sized and open pores. It was concluded that a simple method with a foaming agent and a water bath treatment to prepare geopolymer foams with high open porosity was developed.

Improvements of the Control Rod Material for Long Lifetime by the High Power Millimeter-wave Ceramics Sintering Method

Idehara, Toshitaka*; Mitsudo, Seitaro*; Hoshizuki, Hisanori*; Ogawa, Isamu*; Shibahara, Itaru; Nishi, Hiroshi; Kitano, Akihiro; Ishibashi, Junichi

JNC TY4400 2003-005, 106 Pages, 2003/03

JNC-TY4400-2003-005.pdf:9.48MB

Boron Carbide B4C pellet is an important part of control rod used to control the reactivity of nuclear reactors. B4C pellet put in a nuclear reactor suffers heavy radiation damage and deformation, which result in a partial destruction and shorten the lifetime of B4C. It is important to improve the characteristics of the B4C pellets for extension of its lifetime. As the results, if the control rod without the shroud will be available, we can realize much simpler structure. In order to improve, the B4C pellet, which was sintered by the hot-press methods, we have re-sintered it by high power millimeter wave ceramics nano-indentation test. The increase of the plasticity is observed. The same improvement of plasticity was observed in alumina pellets that were sintered by millimeter wave sintering methods. Such results imply that the further improvement is expected, if the B4C pellet is sintered from powder specimen by the high power millimeter-wave sintering method. To simulate a partial destruction of B4C pellet under the thermal stress, preliminary internal heating experiments of B4C pellet are performed by using high power millimeter-wave. At the difference between internal and surface temperatures of 1000C, the partial destructions and small cracks are observed in B4C pellet. Thes may be a kind of model experiment for destruction of B4C pellet irradiated by neutrons.

ZrC-coated particle fuel for high temperature gas-cooled reactors

Minato, Kazuo; Ogawa, Toru; Sawa, Kazuhiro; Sekino, Hajime; Koya, Toshio; Kitagawa, Isamu; Ishikawa, Akiyoshi; Tomita, Takeshi;

Proc. of the Int. Conf. on Future Nuclear Systems (GLOBAL'99)(CD-ROM), 8 Pages, 1999/00

no abstracts in English

Porosity control of multifunction geopolymer foam

Ogawa, Toru; Utsumi, Taro*; Terasawa, Toshiharu*; Kudo, Isamu*; Suzuki, Tsuneo*; Nakayama, Tadachika*; Suematsu, Hisayuki*

no journal, , 

For the fuel debris management, we develop the preparation techniques for highly porous geopolymer, which would be used as the matrix of neutron absorber as well as hydrogen recombiner. By adding silicon powder to the raw materials, and hot water in mixing, we demonstrated the capability to prepare geopolymer with high fractions of open pores.