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- Title
Effect of the thorium oxide content on the leaching of a mixed thorium-uranium oxide fuel.
- Authors
Björk, Klara Insulander; Holgersson, Stellan; Thuvander, Mattias; Ekberg, Christian
- Abstract
Leaching of uranium from uranium oxide fuel in contact with water can be a radiation hazard problem in the case of fuel cladding failure, either during nuclear reactor operation or in an interim storage, as well as in a final repository. One way to mitigate this is to reduce the solubility of the fuel matrix by the mixing uranium oxide with a compound which is less soluble but otherwise of similar properties. In this paper, the effect of thorium oxide content on the leaching of the uranium oxide matrix is investigated. The method was to study the leaching of the uranium oxide fuel matrix as a function of a varying content of thorium oxide, using materials manufactured by powder co-milling. It was found that the substitution of more than 25% UO2 with ThO2 reduces the matrix leaching by more than one order of magnitude in most of the different leaching solutions investigated. The substitution of 7% UO2 with ThO2 results in a reduction of matrix leaching by 10–90%, depending on the concentration of borate and dissolved oxygen in the leaching solution.
- Subjects
THORIUM dioxide; URANIUM; NUCLEAR fuel claddings; URANIUM oxides; URANIUM compounds; URANIUM as fuel; URANIUM ores; NUCLEAR reactors
- Publication
Journal of Radioanalytical & Nuclear Chemistry, 2022, Vol 331, Issue 7, p2849
- ISSN
0236-5731
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10967-022-08347-5