Method for preparing uo2 mixture powder for nuclear fuel manufacturing by means of ibc blender, and uo2 mixture powder for nuclear fuel manufacturing, prepared thereby

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024257989-A1
Application number	US-202118561045-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 20, 2021
Priority date	Jun 10, 2021
Publication date	Aug 1, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for preparing a UO2 mixture powder for nuclear fuel manufacturing, comprises the steps of: (a) weighing and sieving, by means of an automatic injection device, a UO2 powder, a porogen and a lubricant, and injecting same into a UC container; and (b) mixing the UO2 powder, the porogen and the lubricant by means of an IBC blender. According to a method for preparing a UO2 mixture powder for nuclear fuel manufacturing, mixing time is short, and degrees of mixing and homogeneity of a prepared UO2 mixture powder are excellent.

First claim

1 . A method of preparing a UO 2 powder mixture for nuclear fuel manufacturing, the method comprising:
(a) weighing and sieving a porogen and a lubricant using an automatic injection device and injecting the weighed and sieved porogen and lubricant into a UC container containing UO 2 powder; and (b) mixing the UO 2 powder, the porogen, and the lubricant using an IBC blender.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the porogen is U 3 O 8 powder or azodicarbonamide (ADCA, C 2 H 4 N 4 O 2 ).

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the lubricant is Acrawax (ethylene distearamide, C 38 H 76 N 2 O 2 ) or zinc stearate (Zn—C 36 H 70 O 4 ).

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the UO 2 powder is contained in an amount of 10 to 500 kg, and
0.08 to 10 parts by weight of the porogen and 0.05 to 1 part by weight of the lubricant are contained with respect to 100 parts by weight of the UO 2 powder.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the automatic injection device comprises a 300-μm sieving machine and removes granules present in the porogen and the lubricant, and
the porogen and the lubricant are added in a weight ratio set according to the weight of the UO 2 powder.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein in the (b) mixing, forward mixing is performed under conditions in which a rotation speed is in a range of 10 to 14 rpm, a container filling rate of the power is in a range of 50 to 70 vol %, and a mixing time is in a range of 20 to 30 minutes.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the (b) mixing further comprises performing backward mixing for 10 minutes.

8 . A UO 2 powder mixture for nuclear fuel manufacturing, the powder mixture prepared by the method of claim 1 .

9 . A method of manufacturing a UO 2 nuclear fuel, the method comprising:
manufacturing a UO 2 molded pellet by pressing the UO 2 powder mixture of claim 8 ; manufacturing a UO 2 sintered pellet by sintering the UO 2 molded pellet; and manufacturing a UO 2 ground pellet by grinding the sintered pellet so that the sintered pellet maintains a uniform diameter, wherein a defect rate is 5% or less, and the sintered pellet has a density of 10.30 to 10.58 g/cm 3 .

Assignees

• Kepco Nuclear Fuel Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jo Bohyun
• Choi Hui Sung
• Cho Dong Hyun
• Son Ji Hwan
• Park Junseok

Classifications

• G21C21/00

  Apparatus or processes specially adapted to the manufacture of reactors or parts thereof (in general section B, e.g. B23) · CPC title

• G21C3/045

  Pellets · CPC title

• G21C3/623 Primary

  Oxide fuels · CPC title

• G21C21/02

  Manufacture of fuel elements or breeder elements contained in non-active casings · CPC title

• Y02E30/30

  Nuclear fission reactors · CPC title