Nuclear Fuel Laboratory
The CDTN Nuclear Fuel Laboratory (LaBCoN) is structured for the development of advanced ceramic and metallic nuclear fuels for Test and Research, Power and Propulsion reactors.
LaBCoN is comprised of the following areas:
- Fuel Microsphere Manufacturing: Development of ceramic fuel microspheres of UO2, ThO2, (U,Th)O2, (U,Gd)O2 and (U,Ce)O2 etc. by sol-gel processing.
- Nuclear Fuel Pelletization: Development of ceramic and metallic nuclear fuel pelletization to obtain pellets through the stages of pressing and heat treatments of calcination, reduction and sintering of powders and microspheres.
- Metal Alloys: Development of metal alloys and nuclear fuel plates.
- Ceramographic and Metallographic Preparation: Ceramographic and metallographic preparation of ceramic and metallic materials through the stages of embedding, sanding and polishing.
- Characterization: Physical and chemical characterization of ceramic and metallic nuclear fuels.
Main equipment
Precipitation column connected to compressed air system, sieve, 10-ton hydraulic press, high-temperature tube furnaces, induction furnace, vacuum brazing furnace, 10-ton quadruo rolling mill, comminution system by hydration-dehydration process, swaging (mechanical hammering), precision metallographic cutter, embedder, automatic and manual polishers, Leica optical microscope with image capture camera, Zeiss stereomicroscope with image capture camera, LECO carbon and sulfur analyzer, Netzsch thermal analysis system (TG/DTA/DSC), Density measurement system by simple thrust and xylene penetration and immersion (MPI) methods, particle size analyzer by laser diffraction (Granulometer), surface area analyzer by nitrogen adsorption (NOVA2200), helium pycnometer.
Contact
Tércio Assunção Pedrosa - tap@cdtn.br - Tel.: +55 31 34399368
