Authors:
Antoine Marie (1), Cédric Nicollet (1), Jeremy Bischoff (1), Frédéric Viry (2), Patrick Namy (2)
1- Framatome, France
2- SIMTEC, France
Abstract:
The ceramic-grade nuclear powder can be produced under two main routes, dry or wet “reconversion” processes, consisting in transforming crystalline UF6 as UO2 powder usable to produce fuel pellets. The dry conversion processes, used in Framatome, are divided in two steps: pyrohydrolysis and reduction by thermal treatments. The process used in Romans manufacturing plant has been studied years ago, but the improvements applied since and the product evolution associated have not been modelled.
First, the UF6 to UO2F2 reaction and vessel are being modelled, with as benefits:
• Better understanding of the process,
• Set-up parametric tests without using industrial equipment,
• Development of a numerical twin to be used as a training tool.
In a further extent, the purpose is to be able to model the whole reaction vessel and calciner, including the chemical and thermic reactions, in order to correlate the final UO2 properties to the process parameters.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59499/EP246281691
