Method of making fuel and fertile elements for nuclear-reactor cores

Abstract

Abstract Fissionable-fuel or fertile elements for the core of a nuclear reactor, especially a reactor of the gas-cooled type, wherein the fuel or fertile material is introduced into graphite shells in the form of coated particles and a pyrolytically decomposable carbon-containing or silane gas is passed upwardly through the shell while the mass therein is heated by displacing an induction-furnace core downwardly around the graphite shell thereby bonding the coated particles together with pyrolytic carbon, silicon carbide or zirconium carbide being formed in situ to yield a coherent mass with a porosity of, say, 10 to 25 percent. The gas is preferably a mixture of one or more inert gases (nitrogen, argon or helium) with one or more hydrocarbons or carbon-containing gases (e.g., methane, acetylene, benzene, or silanes).

Inventors

• 👤 E Gyarmati
• 👤 H Nickel

Bibliographic Details