A Microfluidic-Assisted Fabrication of Size-Controlled Porose CeO₂ Microspheres as an Analog Production of Nuclear Fuel Beads

Abstract:

Porosity-controlled nuclear fuel microsphere is an essential material of fabricating minor actinide-bearing dispersion-type nuclear fuel with the infiltration processes. In this paper, monodisperse and size-controlled spherical oxide nuclear fuel particles with size range of 20μm to 800μm were fabricated by means of microfluidic technology combined with sol-gel process using cerium as a surrogate for plutonium. The porous CeO₂ beads with the density range of 25% to 93% T.D. were successfully prepared by the addition of polyethylene glycol 6000 used as a porogen to the feed broth. The uniform U₃O₈ beads were also prepared at the same experimental conditions as CeO₂ beads prepared, which shows the feasibility of the method for fabricating size-controlled monodisperse nuclear fuel beads.

• Periodical: Advances in Science and Technology (Volume 94)
• Pages: 55-68
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AST.94.55
• Online since: October 2014
• Authors: Xiang Li, Ya Ting Yang, Cao Fei Fu, Qun Ying Huang, Liu Si Sheng, Zhen Qi Chang*, Christophe C. Serra
• Keywords: Microfluidic, Nuclear Fuel, Polyethylene Glycol 6000, Porous Beads, Sol-Gel

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