Abstract
Newly developed in-pile techniques were used to measure the saturation vapor pressure of pure UO/sub 2.01/, reactor grade UO/sub 2.08/, and reactor grade (U/sub 0.77/Pu/sub 0.23/)O/sub 2.09/ between 2000 and 3700 kJ/kg. The results for all three fuel types can be described by log rho/sub sat/(z) = -9.7652 + 8.0934 x 10/sup -3/z - 2.0515 x 10/sup -6/z/sup 2/ + 1.9013 x 10/sup -10z/3/sup / with z = h-h/sub 298/ in kilojoules per kilogram and rho/sub sat/ in megapascals. The data were converted to the pressure-temperature format and compared to earlier out-of-pile vapor pressure measurements. All out-of-pile measurements that were performed close to a vapor-liquid equilibrium state agree very well with the in-pile results. The following relation is proposed for the rho-T saturation line of liquid UO/sub 2/: log rho/sub sat/(T) = 15.961 - 26974/T - 2.7600 log T with rho/sub sat/ in megapascals and T in degrees kelvin. Because no significant differences were found for all three fuel types investigated, the same saturation vapor pressure is recommended for liquid-metal fast breeder reactor (LMBFR) typical (U,Pu) mixed oxides under LMFBR core disassembly conditions.
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