Infiltration of porous uranium oxide microspheres prepared by internal gelation

Process conditions for the fabrication of porous uranium oxide microspheres prepared via internal gelation were assessed. To improve application infiltration, microstructural parameters such as density, porosity and specific surface area Specifically, effect calcination temperature use pore-formers was studied. Accessible levels around 20% obtained after at 773 K or 823 K, without a pore-former. As novel application, starch used low-temperature, burnable pore-former, its compared to that graphite. increased 34% due starch, whereas graphite discarded because it requires too elevated temperatures. A subset infiltrated with neodymium nitrate solution surrogate americium nitrate. Very good agreement between targeted actual Nd content observed sintering microspheres, maximum concentration y = 25 mol% (U1-yNdyO2-x) could be reached.