Development of granulation system for simplified MOX pellet fabrication process

Ishii, Katsunori; Segawa, Tomomi; Kawaguchi, Koichi; Suzuki, Masahiro

Proceedings of 2019 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2019) (Internet), 5 Pages, 2019/05

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is developing a simplified pelletizing process for MOX fuel fabrication. In this process, the flowability of MOX powder produced by de-nitration conversion based on microwave heating, calcination, and reduction is improved using the wet granulation method. In a previous paper, to produce MOX granules of appropriate sizes for pelletizing them effectively, we proposed a granulation system composed of a wet granulator and a sizing machine. In the present work, we modernized the wet granulator, completed the granulation system by adding auxiliary equipment, and conducted performance tests of the granulation system with WO powder. The results of a performance test indicated that it is possible to convert raw powder into granules characterized by appropriate size and excellent flowability. The time required to process 5 kg of WO powder was about 70 min, which almost satisfies the target time.

Development of wet process with substitution reaction for the mass production of LiTiO pebbles

Tsuchiya, Kunihiko; Kawamura, Hiroshi

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 283-287(Part.2), p.1380 - 1384, 2000/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3115(00)00099-4

no abstracts in English

Mass fabrication development of LiTiO pebbles with automatic dropping system

Tsuchiya, Kunihiko; Kawamura, Hiroshi; *; *; *

Fusion Technology 1998, 2, p.1293 - 1296, 1998/00

no abstracts in English

Fabrication development and preliminary characterization of LiTiO pebbles by wet process

Tsuchiya, Kunihiko; Kawamura, Hiroshi; *; *; *

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 258-263, p.1985 - 1990, 1998/00

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3115(98)00229-3

no abstracts in English

Analysis of metallic salt granulation preocess, II

Tokuoka, Naochika*; Kobayashi, Mamoru*; Koyama, Takashi*

PNC-TJ1636 96-001, 64 Pages, 1996/03

PNC-TJ1636-96-001.pdf:14.63MB

None

Characteristics of LiO pebbles fabricated by the melting granulation method

*; Kawamura, Hiroshi; Nakamichi, Masaru; Imaizumi, Hideki*; Saito, Minoru; *; Nagakura, Masaaki*

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 219, p.240 - 245, 1995/00

https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3115(94)00531-1

no abstracts in English

Granulation of porous silica particle for extraction chromatography technology

Watanabe, So; Sano, Yuichi; Kofuji, Hirohide; Takeuchi, Masayuki

no journal, , 

no abstracts in English

Unconfined compression strength of tamlbing granular by DEM simulation

Akashi, Masatoshi; Kato, Masato; Tamura, Tetsuya*

no journal, , 

no abstracts in English

Development of flowability improvement technology for MOX powder by wet granulation; Performance evaluation of granulator

Ishii, Katsunori; Segawa, Tomomi; Kawaguchi, Koichi; Suzuki, Masahiro

no journal, , 

To develop flowability improvement technology for the simplified pelletizing process, a simple granulator with little powder adhesion, was experimentally produced. To know the performance of the granulator, granulation experiments was conducted by using dummy powder.

Drying experiments of CeO granules produced using wet granulator

Ishii, Katsunori; Segawa, Tomomi; Kawaguchi, Koichi

no journal, , 

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency is developing a simplified mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication process. In this process, a wet granulator improves the flowability of MOX raw powder for the pelletizing process 1, 2). Following this granulation step, the formed granules have moisture content of approximately 10 wt.%. To adhere to the acceptance standards regarding moisture content for the fuel pellet fabrication step, drying the granules under the moisture content of 1 wt.% using a dryer is necessary. To maintain the granule shape during powder handling and shaker process of a pressing machine, the granules must be adjusted to enough crushing strength. However, the relation between dry conditions and granule crushing strength has not been reported. Therefore, to estimate the appropriate heating conditions of the dryer, we investigated the influence of varying heating conditions on moisture content and granule crushing strength.

Granulation characteristics confirmation test of additive-free dry granulation technology for fast reactor fuel fabrication

Segawa, Tomomi; Kawaguchi, Koichi; Ishii, Katsunori; Nishina, Masahiro; Makino, Takayoshi; Natori, Yuri*; Ikemoto, Norihiro*; Yonehara, Kazuo*; Tatenuma, Katsuyoshi*

no journal, , 

Japan Atomic Energy Agency has researched and developed a simplified MOX pellet fabrication process. the flowability of MOX powder is improved by a tumbling granulation method using water as a binder. However, in this granulation method, improvement of the production capacity under criticality control for wet nuclear material is an issue. In recent years, an additive-free dry granulation technology has proposed as a novel granulation method for producing tritium breeding LiO spheres for nuclear fusion reactor. In this study, to confirm the applicability of this method to the MOX fuel fabrication process, CeO powder was used as a simulated material of MOX powder as a basic test for mechanization, and the influence of mechanical external force on granulation was confirmed and evaluated. As a result of the test, good granulation property was obtained by applying a mechanical external force of vertical vibration, and it was possible to obtain the prospect of mechanization of the dry granulation process.