Calcined Resin Microsphere Pelletization (CRMP) a novel process for sintered metallic oxide pellets synthesis.

E. Remy (1) , S. Picart (1) , S. Grandjean (1) , T. Delahaye (1) , N. Herlet (1) , P. Allegri (1) , O. Dugne (1) , Renaud Podor (2) , Nicolas Clavier (2) , P. Blanchart (3) , A. Ayral (4)

1 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)
2 ICSM - UMR 5257 - Institut de Chimie Séparative de Marcoule
3 IRCER - Institut de Recherche sur les CERamiques
4 IEM - Institut Européen des membranes

This study deals with the preliminary development of a powder-free process called calcined resin microsphere pelletization (CRMP) used for the fabrication of metallic oxide pellets. This dustless process could be used for the fabrication of mixed U1−yAmyO2±x pellets dedicated to the transmutation of Am in fast neutron reactors. In this study, porous CeO2 microspheres, used as a surrogate of AmO2, were obtained after mineralization of cerium loaded ion exchange resin beads. These millimetric oxide microspheres were die-pressed into pellets which were then sintered under air to form ceramic pellets. Their densities approached 95% of theoretical density of CeO2 and a homogeneous microstructure was obtained by using optimized microspheres. The influence of calcination parameters on the characteristics of microspheres and on the properties of sintered pellets is discussed.

Keywords: Calcination; Pressing; Sintering; Precursors-organic; Microsphere

Domains: Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Nuclear Theory [nucl-th]

E. Remy, S. Picart, S. Grandjean, T. Delahaye, N. Herlet, et al.. Calcined Resin Microsphere Pelletization (CRMP) a novel process for sintered metallic oxide pellets synthesis.. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2012, 32 (12), pp.3199-3209. ⟨10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2012.04.011⟩. ⟨cea-02349240⟩