The sintering of uranium carbide and of uranium-plutonium carbide, and the role of nickel as a sintering additive

Elaboration of Uranium Monocarbide Samples for Diffusion Studies

“…Grain size typically range around 10 to 50 µm raises up to 500 µm with 0,5 Wt% Ni. This effect is already well described in literature even if the mechanism of nickel is still in discussion [9,10].…”

Densification behaviour and sintering kinetics of (U0.45Pu0.55)C pellets

“…Pickles et al [14] have determined the sintering kinetics of (U, Pu)C pellets of different stoichiometries using various theoretical models available in the literature. They found that the shrinkage rates of both UC and (U, Pu)C match reasonably well with those calculated on the basis of bulk diffusion mechanism.…”

“…They conducted the experiments on UC, as well as on stoichiometric, hypostoichiometric and hyperstoichiometric (U, Pu)C containing 5% and 30% M 2 C 3 and having a nominal composition of (U 0.85 Pu 0.15 )C [14]. The exponent, m, obtained from the slope of ln (Dl/l 0 ) versus ln t was found to vary in the range of 0.4-0.6 with a mean of 0.519, with carbide composition and sintering temperature [14]. They postulated that the sintering occurs by volume diffusion for all the carbide compositions studied.…”

Direct carbothermic reduction of actinide oxalates: Example of Nd(III) oxalate–carbon mixtures conversion

“…Since the 60s', carbide fuels have been studied all over the world for fast breeder reactors [1][2][3][4][5][6]. But about twenty years later, they were given up except in India where mixed actinide monocarbides ((U,Pu)C) are still used as an advanced fuel for liquid-metalcooled fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs).…”