Innovative fabrication of fuels and targets for Pu recycling and minor actinide transmutation

At the Karlsruhe Transuranium Institute of the Joint Research Centre, a number of processes for the fabrication of MOX fuels and minor actinide targets for transmutation are being developed. For the highly radioactive materials, methods avoiding the use of powders are preferred. Therefore, the liquid routes, SOL GEL or INRAM (infiltration of radioactive materials) are used. A new laboratory for that purpose will be commissioned in 2001. For MOX fuels, laboratory scale fabrication is being undertaken following powder metallurgy (e.g. MIMAS) or SOL GEL routes. The present research programme concerns the development of MOX fuels with large grains, achieved by SOL GEL without any additives and by the MIMAS process with the addition of 0.1 w/o mullite (3 Al2O3, 2SiO2). (authors)