A Review of Properties of Advanced Nuclear Fuels

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Report Date: February 2000
Appendices: No

Abstract

In the present report a review of the models and relations used for evaluating the basic properties of nuclear fuels is made. The review is undertaken as part of the project to assess the performance of advanced fuels containing uranium and thorium.

We have identified the available and required data to model the basic properties of thorium and uranium compounds in order to analyze their behavior in a nuclear power reactor. This is the first step towards determination of the applicability of the existing models to thorium fuels and identification of measurements that need to be done in order to fully understand the behavior of thorium based fuel.

On the whole it can be said that values predicted for urania properties presented by different authors are consistent and the same is in general true for metallic uranium. The differences found may be due to different methods of fabrications or alloys considered.

However, limited data and few models are available for thorium compounds, except for thoria. The reliability of relations to evaluate the properties of thorium compounds needs to be improved. This report will be updated as new data become available.

Program:     NFC Nuclear Fuel Cycle Program
Type:     TR 

RPT. No.: 21