Manufacture of fully dense uranium nitride pellets using hydride derived powders with spark plasma sintering

On the Role of the Electrical Field in Spark Plasma Sintering of UO2+x

“…Although SPS is now a common tool in materials research, its application to nuclear fuels has not been explored extensively, possibly due to complexity associated with the safe handling of actinides. Recent research in Electric Field Assisted Sintering (EFAS) of actinide oxides and nitrides has shown the great potential of the technique, but has also evidenced the need for a better understanding of the behaviour of actinides during EFAS 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 . Uranium oxide, due to its multiple oxidation states and electrical characteristics, is an ideal model material to investigate some of the peculiar effects of the electric field in the processing of ceramic materials.…”

Synthesis and sintering of UN-UO2 fuel composites

“…UN was synthesized using a thermal synthesis route in which elemental uranium was hydrided and dehydrided prior to nitridation. The thermal profile used in this work ( Figure 2) was adapted from a series of previously published techniques [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Prior to loading into a tungsten-lined alumina crucible in an argon filled glovebox, the atomized uranium was cleaned in a 50% nitric acid solution and rinsed in methanol to remove any present oxides.…”

Features that Further Performance Limits of Nuclear Fuel Fabrication: Opportunities for Additive Manufacturing of Nuclear Fuels

“…However, processing of UN powders into dense pellets has historically been a historical [11]. Recent efforts have improved on the results obtained using a conventional cold press and pressureless sintering by use of spark plasma sintering (SPS) [12]. While SPS provides researchers with a means for producing high density UN for research purposes in a fraction of the time or difficulty experienced using conventional methods, SPS is not a strong candidate for industrial scaling.…”