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Oxidation kinetics of high burn-up UOX and MOX fuel : the influence of the grain boundaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

Lionel Desgranges ,
Gurvan Rousseau ,
Marie-Pierre Ferroud-Plattet ,
Cécile Ferry ,
Hélène Giaccalone ,
Isabelle Aubrun ,
Pierre Delion  and
Jean-Michel Untrau
Lionel Desgranges
Affiliation:
CEA DEC/SA3C C.E. Cadarache 13108 Saint-Paul lez Durance, France
Gurvan Rousseau
Affiliation:
CEA DEC/SA3C C.E. Cadarache 13108 Saint-Paul lez Durance, France
Marie-Pierre Ferroud-Plattet
Affiliation:
CEA DEC/SA3C C.E. Cadarache 13108 Saint-Paul lez Durance, France
Cécile Ferry
Affiliation:
CEA DPC CEA Saclay, BP 11, 91191 Gif sur Yvette cedex
Hélène Giaccalone
Affiliation:
CEA DEC/SA3C C.E. Cadarache 13108 Saint-Paul lez Durance, France
Isabelle Aubrun
Affiliation:
CEA DEC/SA3C C.E. Cadarache 13108 Saint-Paul lez Durance, France
Pierre Delion
Affiliation:
CEA DEC/SA3C C.E. Cadarache 13108 Saint-Paul lez Durance, France
Jean-Michel Untrau
Affiliation:
CEA DEC/SA3C C.E. Cadarache 13108 Saint-Paul lez Durance, France
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Abstract

In a dry air storage facility, the oxidation of irradiated nuclear fuel is considered as the main risk induced by a leakage that would put the nuclear ceramics in contact with air. The oxidation of UO2 in U3O8 leads indeed to a relative volume swelling of more than 30% which could cause the ruin of the fuel rod. In order to fill the lack of data on high burn-up fuel, some oxidation experiments are currently conducted in CEA with UO2 and MOX fuel. Fragments as well as slices of fuel rod, with a high burn-up, have been oxidized in air at 200°C for more than 4000 hours. The associated weight gain curves are presented together with the characterization of some samples picked up at different oxidation times. It is shown that the weight gain curve of high burn-up UOX is not parabolic-shaped, as predicted in literature, but sigmoid-shaped. Moreover it is also shown that the grain boundary oxidation is not uniform inside a fragment. This leads to a new description of the oxidation mechanism of irradiated fuel.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 932: Symposium – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXIX , 2006 , 74.1
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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References

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