Fabrication - hdbk1113cn10064

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.

Uranium dioxide (UO2) is produced by

reacting UF6 with water and then with a

hydroxide salt.

The resulting precipitate is dried to form

"orange oxide," which is reduced with

hydrogen to form UO2 powder.

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."