Qualification of sintered U O2 pellets. Vol. 3

The main objective of this work is to develop known procedures for fabrication and testing U O2 pellets starting from U O2 powder for producing experimental fuel elements. This paper concentrates on some quality parameters which are basic requirements for pellet qualification for use in nuclear reactors. This includes green and sintered pellet density, sintered pellet dimensions and grain size. Fabrication processes included pre-pressing, granulation, final automatic pressing and sintering (two regimes). The quality control of each fabrication step was planned, tested and verified. Experimental results are presented for about 100 pellets. These include green density, sintered density, pressing parameters and average grain size. These findings are statically evaluated and related to the fabrication conditions. 8 figs., 2 tabs