Status and progress of R/D in high density nuclear fuel at the CCHEN

This paper presents results of Chilean UMo fuel R and D program achieved during last months in CCHEN. A summary of results for characterization of miniplates manufactured by CCHEN for RERTR irradiation experiment in ATR reactor using hydrided U-7wt% Mo powder are presented. The characterization of miniplates was performed using bend test of specimens taken from adjacent areas; meat metrology and homogeneity - evaluated through X-Ray; UT testing for meat-cladding bonding; blister test; bend test and Eddy current inspection for cladding thickness measurements. Four LEU and one NU miniplates approved were delivered to INL. After inspection at INL, sorne of these miniplates could be irradiated in ATR. Other topic reported in this paper is regarding to the results of powder production using Rotating Electrode Process REP. Identification and influence of variables and operational parameters for REP process are analyzed and discussed, either in conventional materials and UMo alloy. According to the results, the system built in CCHEN is capable to produce particles, most of them with spherical morphologies and different sizes up to 150 microns. Fixed the rotation speed, the parameters studied were the intensity of current applied to pm and the pm diameter. Microestructural characterization reveals a strong reduction in grain size after the centrifugal atomization, from 107 μm for UMo pm to 5 μm for UMo particles; the rnain microconstituent in the powder was U-gamma, with a thin layer of uranium oxide, weakly adhered to the surface of particles, which exhibit sorne closed porosity. Compositional energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) rnicroanalyses applied to sorne particles exhibits compositional gradient in Mo content between surface and the core