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Improvement of UO2 powder properties prepared from recycled aged fuel pellets

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Abstract

The effect of the oxidation temperature of sintered UO2 pellets on the powder properties of U3O8 was studied in the temperature range 250–900 °C in air. The U3O8 was obtained at 450 °C after 180 min and its particle size and surface area are respectively, 35 µm and 0.7 m2/g. The reduction of the U3O8 powder resulted in UO2 after 30 min with a surface area of 0.8 m2/g. This value was improved more than 3.5 times by applying five alternating oxidation–reduction cycles.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank M. Izerrouken for spending a lot of time with our paper and for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Research Center of Draria, B.P. 43 Sebala, Draria, Algiers, Algeria

    Fatah Mernache, Yasmine Melhani & Said Hadji

  2. Laboratories of Materials Technology, Department of Materials Science, University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene, BP32 El Alia, 16111, Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria

    Fatah Mernache, Naima Boutarek & Abdelali Chabour

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  1. Fatah Mernache
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  2. Naima Boutarek
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  3. Abdelali Chabour
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  4. Yasmine Melhani
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  5. Said Hadji
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Correspondence to Fatah Mernache.

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Mernache, F., Boutarek, N., Chabour, A. et al. Improvement of UO2 powder properties prepared from recycled aged fuel pellets. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 312, 87–93 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-017-5200-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-017-5200-7

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