Evolution of fuel plate parameters during deformation in rolling

Abstract

The Nuclear and Energy Research Institute IPEN/CNEN-SP routinely produces the nuclear fuel necessary for operating its research reactor, lEA-R1. This fuel consists of fuel plates containing U3Si2-Al composites as the meat, which are fabricated by rolling. The rolling process currently deployed was developed based on information obtained from literature, which was used as a premise for defining the current manufacturing procedures, according to a methodology with an essentially empirical character. Despite the current rolling process being perfectly stable and highly reproducible, it is not well characterized and is therefore not fully known. The objective of this work is to characterize the rolling process for producing dispersion fuel plates. Results regarding the evolution of the main parameters of technological interest, after each rolling pass, are presented. Some defects that originated along the fuel plate deformation during the rolling process were characterized and discussed. The fabrication procedures for manufacturing the fuel plates are also presented. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.