Abstract
Experimental work has been carried out to evaluate the formation of different carbide phases during vacuum carbothermic reduction of UO 2 microspheres in a static bed of graphite powder. Uranium monocarbide has been found to be the only product after 3.6 kilosecond at temperatures upto 2023 K. In order to find out the reasons for this, present results along with other available information on formation of uranium carbides during carbothermic reduction of UO 2 have been analysed in detail on the basis of intermediate phase equilibria likely to be present in U-C-O system. It is concluded that uranium monocarbide formation is the result of restricted carbon availability at the surface of microspheres.
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