The central problems of using ceramic nuclear fuel fabricated from uranium dioxide enriched in uranium-235 are low thermal conductivity, high disposal costs, and limited natural reserves of uranium-235. A potential direction for the further development of nuclear power in Russia is the use of mixed uranium-plutonium dispersion fuel consisting of fissile materials (uranium and plutonium dioxides) uniformly distributed in a matrix of metal oxides, which have a high thermal conductivity and a low neutron absorption cross section. The methods used to obtain complex oxide compositions (sol-gel, separate preparation, mechanical mixing, and others) are multi-stage, do not provide a uniform distribution of phases, and are characterized by high energy and labor costs. This article proposes a plasma-chemical method of synthesizing nanosized complex oxide compositions in an air-plasma flow from dispersed water-organic nitrate solutions, which provides a significant reduction in energy consumption, a uniform distribution of phases, and the required phase composition.
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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 131, No. 3, pp. 134–138, September, 2021.
I. V. Shamanin is deceased
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Shamanin, I.V., Karengin, A.G., Karengin, A.A. et al. Investigation of Plasma-Chemical Synthesis of Complex Oxide Compositions for Dispersed Uranium-Plutonium Mixed Fuel. At Energy 131, 135–139 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-022-00854-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-022-00854-8