Europia ceramics for use as fast reactor neutron absorbers

the development of a fabrication route for europia, which is one of the few materials suitable for use as a neutron absorber in Fast Reactor control and shut-off rods, is described. The route is based on cold pressing and sintering with the most important stages being the control of powder surface area and of sintering atmosphere. An account is given of the various batches of dense sintered europia artefacts which have been prepared for experimental purposes and for irradiation testing with particular emphasis being given to the production of 12,000 pellets and a small number of relatively large square plates for a zero energy irradiation experiment. Difficulties encountered during the manufacture of the plates and the way in which they were overcome are also discussed. (author)