Status of sol-gel process for nuclear fuels

摘要

Sol-gel process provides an alternate route for fabrication of ceramic nuclear fuel. The sol-gel process provides several advantages over the conventional powder pellet fabrication process by eliminating handling of radioactive powders. The sol-gel process uses only fluids or fluid like materials, thus become amenable to remote handling. The sol-gel process has been developed for the production of coated particle fuels for High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors (HTGRs), as sphere-pac fuel for Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) and as SGMP fuel for Thermal Reactors. Internal Gelation Process is one of the most important routes of the sol-gel process and has been accepted as the most promising process route globally. Several countries having plutonium or ~(233)U based fuel program have developed sol-gel process for nuclear fuels. In India there is special interest for the development of the sol-gel process for the thorium-uranium fuels keeping in view the large resources of thorium in India. Sol-gel process for fuel fabrication is also very attractive route for closing the nuclear fuel cycle efficiently.