Thermochemical modeling of nuclear fuel and the effects of oxygen potential buffers

Henri Loukusa (Corresponding Author), Timo Ikonen, Ville Valtavirta, Ville Tulkki

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The elemental and chemical composition of nuclear fuel pellets are key factors influencing the material properties of the pellets. The oxidation state of the fuel is one of the most important chemical properties influencing the material properties of the fuel, and it can only be determined with the knowledge of the chemical composition. A measure of the oxidation state is the oxygen chemical potential of the fuel. It can be buffered by redox pairs, such as the well-known Mo/MoO2 pair. In this work, the elemental composition of the fuel is obtained from a burnup calculation and the temperature and pressure calculated with a fuel performance code. An estimate of the oxygen potential of fuel is calculated with Gibbs energy minimization. The results are compared against experimental data from the literature. The significance of the UMoO6 compound and its buffering effect on the oxygen potential is emphasized.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)101-110
    JournalJournal of Nuclear Materials
    Volume481
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2016
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Keywords

    • thermochemical modeling
    • nuclear fuel
    • oxygen potential
    • buffering

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