A recommendation for the thermal conductivity of oxide fuels

The thermal conductivity of nuclear fuel is one of the most important properties because it affects the fuel operating temperature. Therefore, it influences almost all the important processes occurred in nuclear fuel during irradiation, such as gas release, swelling and grain growth. The model of the thermal conductivity of nuclear fuel should be used in the codes to evaluate the performance of it analytically and be required in the nuclear fuel research and development. The thermal conductivity, k, of UO2 depends on the deviation from stoichiometry, x, the burnup, b, and the fractional porosity, p, as well as the temperature, T: k = k(x, b, p, T), (1) Changes in thermal conductivity occur during irradiation because of fission-gas bubble formation, pores, cracks, fission product build-up and possible changes in the oxygen to uranium ratio (O/U). The dependence on temperature and porosity has been well studied and incorporated in computer codes used for the in-pile fuel behavior analysis. There are several studies on the effect of impurity on the thermal conductivity of UO2. In this paper, the variables affected on the thermal conductivity were studied. The available data of the thermal conductivity of UO2, UO2+x, (U, Pu)O2, (U, Pu)O2 and simulated fuel for irradiation fuel were reviewed and analyzed. The best models were recommended