Institute for Transuranium Elements. Annual report 1995

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• Publié par: JOINT-RESEARCH-CENTRE
• Nombre de lectures: 32
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 23 Mo

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ISSN 1018-5593
INSTITUTE ANNUAL REPORT 95
1 JOINT
■ RESEARCH
, CENTRE
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Report EUR 16368 ENEUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General JRC
Joint Research Centre
Institute
for
Transuranium Elements
Karlsruhe
Annual Report 1995
TUAR-95
1995 EUR 16368 EN Published by the
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate­General JRC
INSTITUTE FOR TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
D­76125 Karlsruhe
LEGAL NOTICE
Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of
the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the
following information
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication
This report was compiled and edited by R. Schenkel, J. Richter, D. Pel, R. Wellum
Inquiries for more details should be addressed to the Programme Office,
Institute for Transuranium Elements, P.O. Box 2340, D­76125 Karlsruhe,
Phone ++49­7247­951386, FAX ++49­7247­951591
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1996
ISBN 92­827­6553­9
Θ ECSC­EC­EAEC, Brussels · Luxembourg, 1 996
Printed ¡n Germany European Commission
Joint Research Centre
TUAR 95
Institute for Transuranium Elements
Annual Report
January - December 1995 Table of Contents
Foreword 13
Executive Summary5
Highlights 1995
• Micromechanical Testing of Irradiated LWR fuels 18
• New Equipment for the Rapid and Accurate Determination of the High Temperature
Thermophysical Properties of Nuclear Fuel 20
• The TRANSURANUS Code goes East2
• New Insights into the Properties of the Actinide Bi3 Compounds4
• Fabrication of Fuels and Targets for Transmutation and Incineration by Droplet-to-Particle
Conversion 26
• Detection of Clandestine Activities by Analyses of Telltale Traces of Radionuclides 2
• Successful Year for Competitive Activities 3
• Radioactive Source Term Evaluations related to Mururoa Underground Nuclear Explosions 30
A. Institutional Research in
33 Fuel Cycle Safety
1. Basic Actinide Research 35
Introduction
1.1 Samples Preparation and Characterization 3
1.1.1 Growth of single crystals
1.1.2 Preparation of polycrystalline intermetallic compounds5
1.1.3 Encapsulation of active samples for collaborative studies7
1.2 Measurements of Bulk Physical Properties 38
1.2.1 Electrical resistivity of Ui.xNpxPd2Al3 with low actinide concentrations 3
1.2.2 Magnetization experiments on U2T2Sn compounds9
1.2.3ns on Np?T2Sns
1.2.4 Electrical resistivity measurements on Np2T2X compounds 40
1.2.5 High-temperature resistivity measurements on Pu monochalcogenides
1.3 Mössbauer Studies 42
1.4 Structure of Organometallic Compounds3
ITU Annual Report 1995 · (EUR 16368) - Table of Contents 1.5 Spectroscopic Studies of Solid Surfaces 44
1.5.1 Study of the electronic structure of thin U layers on Mg and Al
1.5.2 Thin layer related activities 45
1.6 Resistivity under Pressure
1.6.1 Resistivity study of NpBi under pressure
1.6.2 Extension of the resistivity measurements to lower temperatures 46
1.7 Structural Studies under Pressure
1.7.1 High pressure X-ray diffraction studies of UGa.3, UIn3 UAI3 and Npln3 46
1.7.2he behaviour of TmTe 47
1.7.3 Einsteinium metal8
1.7.4 Perovskites Ba2CoU06 and Ba3Co2UOy9
1.8 Neutron Scattering
1.8.1 Neutron studies of intermetallic compounds
1.9 X-ray Magnetic Scattering 52
1.9.1 Non-resonant magnetic X-ray scattering
1.9.2 Resonant magnetic X-ray scattering
1.10 Theory: Ab Initio Calculations of Ground State and
Spectroscopic Properties3
1.10.1 Calculated elastic constants of UC, US, and UTe 5
1.10.2 Ab initio theory of the magneto-optical spectra of UAsSe4
1.11 Production of 225Ac and 213Bi for Alpha Immuno-Therapy
and Conjugation of Alpha Emitters to Antibodies5
1.11.1 Methods of production of 225Ac and 213Bi for alpha immuno-therapy 5
1.11.2 An experimental study on the radiolabelling of BB4 antibody with 213Bi6
1.11.3 Cytotoxicity of 213Bi and 223Ac-immuno conjugates 57
1.11.4 Recovery of 213Bi from a 225Ac cow: Application to labelling of
antibodies with 213Bi 58
2. Safety of Nuclear Fuels 6i
Introduction
2.1 Structural Investigations and Basic Studies on High
Burn-up Fuels
2.1.1 Porosity of high burn-up U02 fuel1
2.1.2 Investigation of the "High Burn-up Structure" - the observation of
an HBS-type pore inner surface structure in an advanced
plutonium-uranium carbide fuel 64
2.1.3 High resolution electron microscopy of UO26
2.1.4 A pragmatic approach to model the thermal conductivity of irradiated U02 fuel 67
Table of Contents - ITU Annual Report 1995 · (EUR 16368) 2.1.5 Studies on the mechanism of damage creation and track formation
in U02 induced by fast heavy ions 71
2.1.6 Effect of inhomogeneity on the level of fission gas and caesium release
from optimized co-milling (OCOM) MOX fuel during irradiation 75
2.1.7 Study of the ternary plutonium-uranium-oxygen phase diagram 8
2.2 Studies of High Temperature Properties of Nuclear Fuels3
2.2.1 Advances in laser-flash applications for thermal diffusivity measurements
of irradiated nuclear fuel 83
2.2.2 Double pulse thermoanalysis technique for the study of high temperature
transitions of actinide oxides 92
2.2.3 Heat capacity measurements of irradiated fuel using the
laser-flash 1 (LAF-1) apparatus4
2.2.4 Fission product source term measurements from high burn up LWR fuel 95
2.2.5 Revaporization studies on fission product deposits 98
2.3 Fuel Performance Code Development (TRANSURANUS) ιοί
2.3.1 Maintenance work 101
2.3.2 Specific model development
3. Mitigation of Long Lived Actinides and Fission Products 103
Introduction3
3.1 Recovery of Minor Actinides from Irradiated SUPERFACT
Fuels with a View to their Recycling for Transmutation 10
3.2 Design and Fabrication of Fuel Pins for the
HFR Experiment TRABANT 106
3.3 EFTTRA Collaboration 110
3.4 Studies on the Am-0 and the Am02-MgO Systems for
Transmutation of Am1
3.5 The Involvement of the Institute in International R&D Efforts
on Actinide Partitioning and Transmutation 113
3.6 Evaluation and Comparison of Public and Occupational
Radiological Hazard from Intended Waste/Spent Fuel
Repositories from Standard and Partitioning & Transmutation
Fuel Cycles lie
3.7 Minor Actinide Laboratory 117
3.8 Particle Agglomeration and Deposition in Turbulence (PADIT) 11
3.9 A Strategy for Pu Destruction in PWR's9
ITU Annual Report 1995 · (EUR 16368) - Table of Contents 4. Spent Fuel Characterization in View of Long Term Storage 123
Introduction 123
4.1 Characterization of Spent Fuel 12
4.1.1 Study of U02 corrosion in carbonate and chloride solutions by
electrochemical techniques
4.1.2 Oxidation of irradiated U02 at low temperatures (< 500 °C) 128
4.1.3 Influence of low temperature air oxidation on the dissolution behaviour
of LWR spent fuel 131
4.1.4 Leaching of SIMFUEL in simulated granitic water; comparison to results
in demineralized water
4.1.5 Analysis of the structure of layers on U02 leached in H20 139
4.1.6 Caustic salt dissolution studies of irradiated fuel 14
4.2 Interaction of Fuel with Structural Materials (Fuel Chemistry) 145
4.2.1 High temperature severe degradation and interactions of
structural material with fuel 145
4.2.2 Sodium-SUPERFACT fuel compatibility test 153
4.3 Non-Destructive Assay of Spent Nuclear Fuel 156
5. Safeguards Research and Development 159
Introduction 159
5.1 Analysis of Radionuclide Traces for the Identification of
159 Nuclear Activities
5.2 Identification of Nuclear Material with Unknown
Irradiation History: a Case Study 163
5.3 Applications of Environmental Monitoring 165
5.4 Gamma Spectrometry of Spent Nuclear Fuel Using a
Miniature Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) Detector 166
B. Scientific and Technical Institutional
Support Activities 169
6. Scientific and Technical Support to DG XVII 171
Introduction 171
6.1 On-site Laboratory at ITU (Pre-OSL) 171
6.1.1 Pre-on-site laboratory at ITU (pre-OSL) 171
172 6.1.2 Description of the pre-OSL
Table of Contents - ITU Annual Report 1995 · (EUR 16368)