Specific heats of thoria–urania solid solutions

Abstract

Thoria–urania solid solutions having compositions ThO2–4%UO2, ThO2–10%UO2, ThO2–20%UO2, ThO2–50%UO2 and ThO2–80%UO2 (all compositions are in wt%) were prepared by coated agglomerate pelletization (CAP) process and powder metallurgy (P/M) routes, characterized by ICP-AES, density, grain size, oxygen to metal (O/M) ratio, X-ray diffraction (XRD), lattice parameter and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Specific heats of pure ThO2, UO2 and these solid solutions were measured by differential scanning calorimeter in the temperature range from 300 to 1650K. The results obtained in this study were compared with those available in the literature and on this basis it was found out that the molar specific heats of these substances obtained in the present study are within an accuracy limit of ±4%.