Quality control as aid to define the production parameters in the manufacture of LWR fuels

The known advantage of the AUC process, to provide a UO2 powder, which can be directly pressed to pellets without intermediate steps also has a less known positive property: by selecting the production parameters in the UO2 powder manufacture, it is possible to directly control the quality features of the fuel pellets. Extensive investigations have shown that there is a mathematically formulable relationship between the production parameters and the powder or pellet quality. The thus obtained mathematical model enables the production parameters to be exactly adjusted to give the desired quality also allowing the most economical method to be chosen. (orig.)