Fabrication - doe-hdbk-1113-98_reaffirm_2005

DOE-HDBK-1113-98

Module 102 The Nuclear Fuel Cycle

Lesson Plan

Instructor's Notes

Highly enriched uranium was then named

"Oralloy" for "Oak Ridge Alloy," sometimes

abbreviated to "Oy." Depleted uranium was

once called depletalloy, but more commonly was

called "D-38" since it consists mostly of 238U.

These historical names are sometimes still used

within the DOE complex.

Fabrication

The last step in the nuclear fuel cycle is changing

the enriched uranium into an appropriate form for

fabrication. The fabrication process differs

depending on the application. For fabrication of fuel

elements, the process generally includes the

following steps.

a. Uranium dioxide (UO2) is produced by reacting

UF6 with water and then with a hydroxide salt.

b. The resulting precipitate is dried to form "orange

oxide," which is reduced with hydrogen to form

UO2 powder.

c. The UO2 powder is compacted into cylindrical

pellets that are loaded into thin walled tubes

made of either stainless steel or an alloy of

zirconium called "zircalloy."