Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1997 International RERTR Meeting

LEU FUEL DEVELOPMENT at CERCA
Status as of October 1997
PRELIMINARY DEVELOPMENTS OF MTR PLATES WITH
UMo FUEL

By JP. DURAND - Y. LAVASTRE - M. GRASSE

from CERCA - Zl Les Berauds - 26104 ROMANS (FRANCE)

ABSTRACT

UMo fuels are considered by the RERTR programme because of their higher density as compared to U3Si2. This paper is focused on the preliminary results about the manufacture feasibility of Uranium/Molybdenum fuel plates carried out by CERCA. A special procedure of casting and heat treatment has been developed in order to get an homogeneous gamma phase of UMo alloy Although U-5%Mo allows to reach densities up to 9 9 UVcm3 with the advanced process developed by CERCA for the high loaded plates, it is not a good candidate on the thermal stability point of view. U-9%Mo alloy seems to gather all the criteria for a good fuel alloy but it is a little less effective on the Uranium density point of view as compared to U-5%Mo alloy. In any case, the preliminary feasibility results are very much encouraging because UMo alloys seem to be compatible with the Aluminium matrix when taking special care while manufacturing. A good compromise could be an intermediate percentage of Molybdenum or the addition of metal traces in order to thermally stabilise 5%Mo.

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