2007 International RERTR Meeting

Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the Meeting

Powder Formation of γ-UMo Alloys via Hydration - Dehydration

Fábio Branco Vaz de Oliveira, Michelangelo Durazzo,
Elita Fontenele Urano de Carvalho, Adonis Marcelo Saliba-Silva
Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares
Centro do Combustível Nuclear
Avenida Professor Lineu Prestes 2242, Cidade Universitária, 05508-900
São Paulo - São Paulo / Brasil

and

Humberto Gracher Riella
 Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Departamento de Engenharia Química
Campus Universitário 88040-900
Florianópolis - Santa Catarina / Brasil

ABSTRACT

Gamma uranium-molybdenum alloys has been considered as fuel phase in plate type fuel elements for MTR reactors, mainly due to their acceptable performance under irradiation and metallurgical processing. To its use as a dispersion phase in aluminum matrix, a necessary step is the conversion of the as cast structure into powder, and one of the techniques considered at IPEN / CNEN - Brazil is HDH (hydration-dehydration). The alloys were produced by the induction melting technique, and samples were obtained from the alloys for the thermal treatments, under constant flow of hydrogen, for temperatures varying from 400°C to 600°C and times from 1 to 4 hours, followed by dehydration. A preliminary characterization of the powders was made and the curves of mass variation versus time were obtained and related to the powder characteristics. This paper describes the first results on the development of the technology to the powder formation of the (5 to 10) % weight molybdenum γ-UMo alloys, and discusses some of its aspects, mainly those related to the γ → α equilibrium data.

 

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