Graphite flakes/UO2 fuel pellets with excellent thermal conductivity in radial direction

•Graphite flakes were used to improve the radial thermal conductivity of UO2.•Graphite flakes/UO2 presented highly-oriented structure and well-bonded interface.•The radial thermal conductivity of graphite flakes/UO2 was greatly improved by ~200%. In order to increase the radial thermal conductivity...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of nuclear materials Vol. 545; p. 152639
Main Authors Li, Bingqing, Yang, Zhenliang, Wang, Zhiyi, Huang, Qiqi, Liu, Xuxu, Yan, Biaojie, Cheng, Liang, Shi, Tao, Zhang, Dezhi, Wu, Min, Gao, Rui, Chu, Mingfu, Zhang, Pengcheng, Bai, Bin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.03.2021
Elsevier BV
Subjects
Composites
Flakes
Fuels
Graphite
Graphite flakes
Heat conductivity
Heat transfer
Pellets
Plasma sintering
Spark plasma sintering
Thermal conductivity
UO2
Uranium dioxide
Graphite flakes
Thermal conductivity
UO2
Composites
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Summary:•Graphite flakes were used to improve the radial thermal conductivity of UO2.•Graphite flakes/UO2 presented highly-oriented structure and well-bonded interface.•The radial thermal conductivity of graphite flakes/UO2 was greatly improved by ~200%. In order to increase the radial thermal conductivity (TC) of UO2 pellets, highly-oriented graphite flakes (GFs) were first introduced to UO2 pellets by spark plasma sintering. The radial TC of GFs/UO2 agreed well with Hatta-Taya model, which was closely related to the well-bonded interface and highly-oriented structure. Compared with UO2, the radial TC of GFs/UO2 was greatly improved by about 200 % within a wide temperature range, higher than all the other reported value until now. Such enhancement in TC would significantly improve the safety of UO2 fuel pellets.
ISSN:0022-3115
1873-4820
DOI:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2020.152639