The calculation of uranium metallic Fuel (U-10%wtZr) cell with helium coolant using SRAC 2K6

In this study, pin-shaped natural metallic uranium fuel cells with a diameter of 1.4 cm were designed with and without enrichment of 2-10% by using helium as a coolant. The calculations were conducted by using SRAC software and the results show that the greater the enrichment level, the more significant the value of the infinite-multiplication-factor (kinf), meanwhile the conversion ratio is smaller. Basically, uranium exists in two isotopic forms namely, U-235 and U-238 which are transformed into other element such as Pu-239 when they both go through fission and transmutation reactions in the reactor core. Therefore, to obtain the optimum reactor core design, the performance information of nuclear fuel cells from the variations of burn-up time needs to be taken into consideration.

Uranium targets for heavy-ion accelerators

Uranium targets are very important for accelerator-based research of nuclear properties. Depending on the reaction to be studied and on the conditions during the experiments different restrictions on the target material have to be met; as for example, durability, melting temperature, reactivity or a possible contribution of the additional compounds present to the reaction. Therefore, we are developing processes to produce uranium targets in the elemental form as well as in different compounds. Here we report on the production and application of targets from metallic uranium, UF4 and UO2.