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Low Temperature Synthesis of Silicon Carbide Inert Matrix Fuel (IMF)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Chunghao Shih ,
James Tulenko  and
Ronald Baney
Chunghao Shih
Affiliation:
chunghao.shih@gmail.com, Univeristy of Florida, Materials Science and Engineering, Gainesville, Florida, United States
James Tulenko
Affiliation:
tulenko@ufl.edu, Univeristy of Florida, Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, Gainesville, Florida, United States
Ronald Baney
Affiliation:
rbane@mse.ufl.edu, Univeristy of Florida, Materials Science and Engineering, Gainesville, Florida, United States
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Abstract

A process for the synthesis of silicon carbide (SiC) inert matrix fuels at a low temperature (1050 °C) is reported which utilized a liquid polymer precursor. As the polymer content increased, the theoretical density of the pellet at first increased and then reached a plateau. From the onset of the plateau, the packing of the one micron SiC particles in the green body was determined to be 64-68% at 600 MPa pressing pressure. As expected, mixing coarse and fine SiC particles gave a higher pellet density. The maximum density achieved was 80% of the theoretical density. Mercury porosimetry showed that the largest pore size was around 10% of the largest particle sizes present in the green body. SEM images showed that ceria, which was selected as a surrogate for PuO2 in the present study, was well distributed.

Keywords

ceramicnuclear materialsPu
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1215: Symposium V – Materials Research Needs to Advance Nuclear Energy , 2009 , 1215-V11-05
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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