Abstract
Among the activities led by the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) relative to the future nuclear systems, the improvement of recycling of fuel elements and their components is a major issue. One of the studied systems by the GIF is the graphite-moderated high-temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR). The fuel elements are composed of fuel roads half-inch in diameter named compacts. The compacts contain spherical particles made of actinide kernels about 500 m in diameter coated with three layers of carbon and silicon carbide, each about 50 m thick, dispersed in a graphite matrix. Recycling of compacts requires first a separation of triso-particles from the graphite matrix and secondly, the separation of the triso-coating from the kernels. This aim may be achieved by using pulsed currents: the compacts are placed within a cell filled by water and exposed to high voltage between 200 – 500 kV and discharge currents from 10 to 20 kA during short laps of time (about 2 µs) [1-2]. This repeated treatment leads to a progressive fragmentation of the graphite matrix and a disassembly of the compacts. In order to improve understanding of the fragmentation properties of compacts a series of quasi-static and dynamic experiments have been conducted with similar cylindrical samples containing 10% (volume fraction) of SiC particles coated in a graphite matrix.
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