EP0713601A1 - Briquette de combustible nucleaire contenant de l'uranium - Google Patents

Briquette de combustible nucleaire contenant de l'uranium

Info

Publication number
EP0713601A1
EP0713601A1 EP94924290A EP94924290A EP0713601A1 EP 0713601 A1 EP0713601 A1 EP 0713601A1 EP 94924290 A EP94924290 A EP 94924290A EP 94924290 A EP94924290 A EP 94924290A EP 0713601 A1 EP0713601 A1 EP 0713601A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
sintered body
boron
chemical
nuclear fuel
uranium
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP94924290A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Harald Cura
Martin Peehs
Gerhard Gradel
Alfons Roppelt
Erhard Ortlieb
Richard A. Perkins
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Siemens AG
Siemens Corp
Original Assignee
Siemens AG
Siemens Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Siemens AG, Siemens Corp filed Critical Siemens AG
Priority to EP94924290A priority Critical patent/EP0713601A1/fr
Priority claimed from PCT/EP1994/002470 external-priority patent/WO1995004994A1/fr
Publication of EP0713601A1 publication Critical patent/EP0713601A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
    • Y02E30/00—Energy generation of nuclear origin
    • Y02E30/30—Nuclear fission reactors

Definitions

  • Uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body nuclear reactor fuel element with a uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body and method for treating a uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body
  • the invention relates to a nuclear fuel sintered body according to one of claims 1 to 8, a nuclear reactor fuel element according to claim 14 and a method for treating a uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body according to claim 15.
  • a nuclear fuel sintered body made of UO2, (U, Pu) ⁇ 2 or (U, Th) O2 is known from EP-A1-0 239 843.
  • This known core fuel sintered body is obtained by producing a mixture of uranium oxide powder or uranium mixed oxide powder with uranium boride or boron carbide powder and pressing it into compacts, which are then sintered in a sintering furnace in a reducing sintering atmosphere to form nuclear fuel sintered bodies.
  • the boron is thus distributed uniformly everywhere in the sintered matrix.
  • Boron in uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered bodies is a neutron absorber that can be burned off in terms of physical physics and, after a certain period of use, these nuclear fuel sintered bodies lose their property as an absorber for thermal neutrons in a nuclear reactor.
  • Nuclear reactor fuel elements with fuel rods that contain uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered bodies are used, for example, during four successive, generally equally long fuel element cycles in the nuclear reactor. At the end of one In each case, part of the nuclear reactor fuel elements in the nuclear reactor are replaced by fresh, unirradiated nuclear reactor fuel elements.
  • the fresh, unirradiated nuclear reactor fuel elements would bring about a relatively high reactivity in the nuclear reactor compared to the already irradiated nuclear reactor fuel elements.
  • the boron in the nuclear fuel sintered bodies of these fresh, unirradiated nuclear reactor fuel elements initially dampens the reactivity brought about by these nuclear reactor fuel elements by initially absorbing thermal neutrons.
  • the nuclear fuel of fresh and unirradiated nuclear reactor fuel elements gradually burns off in the nuclear reactor by nuclear fission, but at the same time a combustible neutron absorber present in this nuclear fuel also gradually burns off in terms of neutron physics, so that this neutron absorber finally has little or no thermal energy Neutrons absorbed. This way you can also get fresh in the nuclear fuel
  • Non-irradiated nuclear reactor fuel elements used in the nuclear reactor have about the same reactivity in the nuclear reactor during their entire service life in the nuclear reactor as the nuclear reactor fuel elements which have already completed a fuel element cycle in the nuclear reactor.
  • Boron as a neutron absorber in the nuclear fuel is advantageous over other combustible neutron absorbers such as rare earths if the fuel element cycles are relatively long, for example longer than 12 months, since boron prevents heat build-up in the nuclear fuel.
  • the invention is based on the object of developing the known uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body, so that there is no excessively rapid and excessive increase in reactivity when starting a nuclear reactor when this nuclear fuel material sintered body in the unirradiated state is freshly introduced into this nuclear reactor.
  • the surface of the uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body in the cladding tube of a fuel rod is kept relatively constant at a substantially lower temperature than the remainder of the sintered body by the coolant flowing past the outside of the cladding tube, but on the other hand in the uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body according to the invention
  • Most of the boron is located in a surface layer, chemical reactions between the UB X and UO2 take place only to a minor extent in this surface layer, so that the boron cannot escape from the uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body according to the invention and thus an increase in reactivity is ensured, which is damped with regard to its speed and height.
  • Claims 9 to 13 are directed to advantageous developments of the uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body according to one of Claims 1 to 8.
  • Claim 14 relates to an advantageously designed nuclear reactor fuel element.
  • Claims 16 to 25 are directed to advantageous developments of this method.
  • a boat made of AI2O3 several ceramic nuclear fuel sintered bodies made of UO2 were placed on a powder bed made of ZrB2, which may contain at least one of the substances NH4CI, BaF2 and / or KBF4 as a catalyst.
  • the nuclear fuel sintered bodies each had a sintered density between 10.38 and 10.44 g / cm 3 .
  • the nuclear fuel sintered bodies were also completely covered with powder made of ZrB2, which may also contain, for example, NH4CI, BaF2 and / or KBF4 as a catalyst.
  • the boat with the nuclear fuel sintered bodies was then arranged in a tube made of Al2O3 and heated in this tube in an electrically heated tube furnace in a treatment atmosphere of 5% H2 and 95% He at 1400 ° C. for three hours.
  • an A ⁇ O-tube was used, which was arranged with a horizontal longitudinal axis in an electrically heated tube furnace.
  • Two thirds of the Empty volume of this Al2O3 tube was filled with powder from ZrB2, in which twelve ceramic nuclear fuel sintered bodies made of UO2 were also embedded with sintered densities between 10.38 and 10.44 g / cm 3 .
  • the nuclear fuel sintered bodies also had the shape of a solid cylinder with a diameter of 9.11 mm and a height of 10 mm.
  • the Al2 ⁇ 3 ⁇ tube was rotated around its longitudinal axis at one revolution per minute, so that the powder together with the nuclear fuel sintered body was circulated. Powder and nuclear fuel sintered body were heated for three hours to a treatment temperature of 1400 ° C in an ambient atmosphere in the tube furnace made of 5% H2 and 95% He.
  • the nuclear fuel sintered bodies After cooling, the nuclear fuel sintered bodies had a surface layer of practically 100% by volume of UB2 and UB4 under their entire surface. This surface layer had a layer thickness of 16 ⁇ m + 4 ⁇ m under the outer surface of the nuclear fuel sintered bodies and 7 ⁇ m ⁇ 3 ⁇ m on the two end surfaces.
  • the sintered body residue was unchanged UO2 with no detectable boron content.
  • the nuclear fuel sintered bodies made of UO2 were kept at a temperature of 1050 ° C. in the tubular furnace for 90 minutes. After cooling, these nuclear fuel sintered bodies made of UO2 had a surface layer of 8 ⁇ m thickness under their entire surface, which consisted of 100% by weight of UB2 and UB4. The sintered body residue was unchanged U ⁇ 2 with no detectable boron content.
  • the surface layer containing UB2 and UB4 can also be formed in the nuclear fuel sintered body made of UO2 by embedding this nuclear fuel sintered body in boron and / or a chemical compound containing boron, which are in the molten state.
  • the isotope B] _Q in the boron in the boron used or in the boron-containing chemical compounds used is enriched compared to the natural isotope composition of boron. This can be achieved in a known manner, for example by cyclotron, diffusion or separation nozzle enrichment.
  • This isotope B ] _ Q practically absorbs the thermal neutrons. Due to its accumulation in boron, which is located in the surface layer of the uranium-containing nuclear fuel sintered body, the thickness of this surface layer can be chosen to be relatively small.
  • uranium-containing ceramic nuclear fuel sintered bodies can be treated which contain at least one of the chemical compounds (U, Pu) ⁇ 2, (U, Th) ⁇ 2, (U, RE) ⁇ 2.
  • the rare earths RE can be, in particular, gadolinium, samarium, europium, erbium and dispro ⁇ ium, which are all neutron poisons, but may show a different neutron-physical burnout behavior than boron and therefore, in combination with boron, advantageously control the reactivity in can influence a nuclear reactor. It is advantageous to insert the uranium-containing core fuel sintered body according to the invention in a cladding tube, generally made of a zirconium alloy or stainless steel, of a fuel rod and to close this cladding tube. This fuel rod is advantageously part of a nuclear reactor fuel element for a nuclear reactor. Such a nuclear reactor fuel element is advantageously provided for a light water core reactor, in particular for a pressurized water core reactor or a boiling water core reactor.

Landscapes

  • Monitoring And Testing Of Nuclear Reactors (AREA)

Abstract

Une briquette de combustible nucléaire contenant de l'uranium, présentant les substances, UO2, (U, Pu)O2, (U, Th)O2, (U, RE)O2, (U, Pu, Th)O2, (U, Pu, RE)O2, (U, Th, RE)O2 ou (U, Pu, Th, RE)O2, avec RE= terres rares, comporte une couche superficielle constituée pour au moins 80 % vol. du composé chimique du bore UBx ou du (U,...)Bx(x=2; 4; 6 ou 12), tandis que le reste de la briquette comprend au maximum 5 % vol. de ce composé chimique du bore. Un élément combustible de réacteur nucléaire présente une barre combustible qui contient dans une gaine une telle briquette de combustible nucléaire contenant de l'uranium, le bore servant d'absorbeur combustible pour les neutrons thermiques. La couche superficielle contenant le composé chimique du bore est obtenue par traitement de la briquette de combustible nucléaire avec le bore ou avec un composé chimique contenant du bore à une température de traitement suffisamment élevée.
EP94924290A 1993-08-09 1994-07-26 Briquette de combustible nucleaire contenant de l'uranium Withdrawn EP0713601A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP94924290A EP0713601A1 (fr) 1993-08-09 1994-07-26 Briquette de combustible nucleaire contenant de l'uranium

Applications Claiming Priority (6)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP93112714 1993-08-09
EP93112714 1993-08-09
EP93113358 1993-08-20
EP93113358 1993-08-20
EP94924290A EP0713601A1 (fr) 1993-08-09 1994-07-26 Briquette de combustible nucleaire contenant de l'uranium
PCT/EP1994/002470 WO1995004994A1 (fr) 1993-08-09 1994-07-26 Briquette de combustible nucleaire contenant de l'uranium

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0713601A1 true EP0713601A1 (fr) 1996-05-29

Family

ID=27235195

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP94924290A Withdrawn EP0713601A1 (fr) 1993-08-09 1994-07-26 Briquette de combustible nucleaire contenant de l'uranium

Country Status (1)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0713601A1 (fr)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See references of WO9504994A1 *

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