A promising direction of advancement in nuclear energy is the use of uranium-thorium dispersion nuclear fuel, which consists of fissile metal (uranium, thorium) oxides evenly distributed in an oxide matrix having a high thermal conductivity and small neutron absorption cross-section. The methods of obtaining oxide composites (sol-gel process, separate production, mechanical mixing, and others) are multistaged, do not afford a uniform distribution of phases, and have high energy consumption. This article discusses the plasma- chemical synthesis of nanosized oxide composites in an air-plasma flow of dispersed aqueous-organic nitrate solutions with heat value equal to at least 8.4 MJ/kg, affording significant energy consumption reduction and uniform phase distribution with the required phase composition.
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I. V. Shamanin is deceased.
Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 131, No. 1, pp. 46–49, July, 2021.
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Shamanin, I.V., Karengin, A.G., Karengin, A.A. et al. Plasma-Chemical Synthesis and Investigation of Nano-Size Oxide Compositions Simulating Uranium-Thorium Dispersion Nuclear Fuel. At Energy 131, 46–49 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-022-00835-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-022-00835-x