摘要
Uranium dioxide nuclear fuel has been widely used in pressurized water reactors(PWR),because of its high melting point,isotropic expansion,excellent radiation behaviors and mechanical properties[1].However,it is easy to embrittlement and the thermal conductivity is quite low.Compared with traditional uranium oxides nuclear fuel,the uranium carbide has extremely high hardness and no phase transition occurs in wide temperature range[2].The thermal conductivity,density and uranium fraction of UC is 21.7 W/(mK)(1237 K),13.63 g/cm3 and 95.2%respectively,which are much higher than that of UO2.Uranium carbide ceramic fuel has been considered as a potential candidate nuclear fuel for the next-generation fast-neutron reactors,especially for the Accelerator-Driven Systems(ADS).Based on the accelerator driven recycling used nuclear fuel,uranium carbide can recrystallize with plutonium(Pu)and minor actinides(MAs).Therefore uranium carbide is chosen as the fuel format in ADS.
