UO2-7%Gd2O3 fuel process development by mechanical blending with reprocessing of waste products and usage of densification additive

In the nuclear fuel cycle, reprocessing and storage of 'burned' fuels, either temporary or permanent, demand high investments and, in addition, can potentially generate environmental problems. A strategy to decrease these problems is to adopt measures to reduce the amount of waste generated. The usage of integrated burnable poison based on gadolinium is a measure that contributes to achieve this goal. The reason to use burnable poison is to control the neutron population in the reactor during the early life of the fresh reactor core or the beginning of each recharging fuel cycle, extending its cycle duration. Another advantage of using burnable poison is to be able to operate the reactor with higher burning rate, optimizing the usage of the fuel. The process of manufacturing UO2-Gd2O3 integrated burnable fuel poison generates waste that, as much as possible, needs to be recycled. Blending of Gd2O3 in UO2 powder requires the usage of a special additive to achieve the final fuel pellet specified density. The objective of this work is to develop the process of obtaining UO2 - 7% Gd2O3 integrated burnable poison using densification additives, aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3), and reprocessing manufacturing waste products by mechanical blending. The content of 7%- Gd2O3 is based on commercial PWR reactor fuels - Type Angra 2. The results show that the usage of Al(OH)3 as an additive is a very effective choice that promotes the densification of fuel pellets with recycle up to 10%. Concentrations of 0,20 % of Al(OH)3 were found to be the indicated amount on an 7 industrial scale, specially when the recycled products come from U3O8 obtained by calcination of sintered pellets. This is particularly interesting because it is following the steps of sintering and rectifying of the pellets, which is generating the largest amounts of recycled material. (author)