Methodology of U4Zr2Nb alloy powder passivation obtained by hydride-dehydride process

The high density U-Zr-Nb uranium-based alloy is very promising to be used as a nuclear fuel not only in research reactors of low enrichment uranium but also in thermal power pressurized water reactors (PWR). This alloy needs to be processed into a powder to be useful in attainment metallic fuel plate fabrication. There are different methods to obtain powder from nuclear metallic alloy. In this study the hydride-dehydride method was chosen due to its relative simplicity and low cost fabrication. However, uranium powder is notably pyrophoric and moreover, the uranium powder in hydride form is more dangerous because of the hydrogen liberation during the burning, increasing the risk of an accident or an explosion. In this way, the U-Zr-Nb hydrided and dehydrided powders need to be passivated before its exposition to the air. The passivation is the spontaneous formation of a hard non-reactive surface film that inhibits further corrosion. This layer is usually an oxide that is a few atoms thick. In this paper the UZrNb alloy was hydrided, dehydrided and then passivated in a tubular furnace. Several thermal treatments for determining the passivation conditions were tested at times varying between 2 and 24 hours at room temperature. For these treatments a mixture of gases of 90% Ar with 10% O2, pressurized in the range of 0.01 to 0.5 Bar was used. The obtained U-Zr-Nb passivated powders during different thermal treatments were characterized in terms of optical microscopy, scanning electronic microscopy, X-ray diffraction and then the results were discussed. All tests showed that the powders were of angular and irregular morphology. (author)