Method of analyzing sintered density of uranium oxide (UOx) using spectrophotometer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9927420-B2
Application number	US-201615336996-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 28, 2016
Priority date	Aug 9, 2016
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of predicting, calculating, or analyzing the sintered density of uranium oxide (UO x ) before uranium oxide is added in the pelletizing process during a process of manufacturing nuclear fuel, the method including measuring the chromaticity of ammonium diuranate using a spectrophotometer. The present invention provides a simple and highly reliable method of predicting the sintered density of uranium oxide (UO x ), which overcomes the problem with a conventional technology where the sintered density of uranium oxide (UO x ) can be analyzed only in a pellet state and a subsequent treatment process needs to be performed according to the analysis result.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of predicting a sintered density of a uranium oxide (UO x ) pellet for the nuclear fuel, the method comprising:
obtaining standard data including a sintered density of a uranium oxide (UOx) pellet with respect to a chromaticity value of ammonium diuranate powder by measuring a sample uranium oxide (UOx) pellet and sample ammonium diuranate powder, wherein the sample ammonium diuranate powder is precursor of the sample uranium oxide (UOx) pellet;
measuring a chromaticity value of target ammonium diuranate powder in a manufacturing process of a target uranium oxide (UOx) pellet using a spectrophotometer;
finding a corresponding chromaticity value, in the standard data, to the chromaticity value of the target ammonium diuranate powder; and
predicting the sintered density of the target uranium oxide (UO x ) pellet by obtaining the sintered density, from the standard data, with respect to the corresponding chromaticity value.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the chromaticity values of the sample and target ammonium diuranate powders are obtained using a L* a* b* color coordinate system.

Assignees

• Kepco Nuclear Fuel Co Ltd

Inventors

• Bae Youngmoon
• Yang Seungchul
• Lee Byungkuk
• Kwak Dongyong
• Cho Hyunkwang
• Gu Sunghoi
• Hwang Euijun

Classifications

• G01N2033/0093

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01N2033/0091

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01N21/31

  Investigating relative effect of material at wavelengths characteristic of specific elements or molecules, e.g. atomic absorption spectrometry {(G01N21/72 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• G21C3/26

  with fissile or breeder material in powder form within a non-active casing · CPC title

• G21C17/06

  Devices or arrangements for monitoring or testing fuel or fuel elements outside the reactor core, e.g. for burn-up, for contamination (G21C17/08, G21C17/10 take precedence; detecting leaking fuel elements during reactor operation G21C17/04) · CPC title