Abstract
ABSTRACT Re-criticality analysis of the fuel debris at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant is the key step to ensure the safe retrieval and storage of the fuel debris. Knowledge of the amount and distribution of Pu and Gd within the fuel debris greatly contributes to such analysis as they directly affect the fission-chain reaction. However, little is known about how Pu-doped and Gd-doped (U,Zr)O2 solid solutions oxidize and whether phases concentrated in Pu or Gd form. In this study, CeO2 is used as a surrogate material for PuO2 because of the similarities in their crystal structures and valence states. (U0.9-x Zr0.1Ce x )O2 and (U0.9-x Zr0.1Gd x )O2 solid solutions are prepared by sintering under an argon atmosphere and oxidized at 1073 K in air for 2 hours to simulate heavily oxidized fuel debris. Samples doped with 5 at% Ce and Gd contain only an orthorhombic-U3O8-x phase after oxidation, but its diffraction peaks’ intensities decrease as the amount of dopant increases. The phase transformation of (U0.9-x Zr0.1Gd x )O2, with further oxidation, is found to be cubic-(U,Zr,Gd)O2+x orthorhombic-(U,Zr,Gd)3O7±x orthorhombic-(U,Zr,Gd)3O8-x . SEM/EDS analysis reveals that Ce and Gd are uniformly distributed in the (U0.9-x Zr0.1RE x )O2 (RE = Ce, Gd) samples after oxidation.
Published Version
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