Preliminary study of fabrication technology for transmutation fuels using surrogate alloy

A preliminary study on the fabrication of transmutation fuels was carried out using an injection casting technique. Melts of binary U–Zr, a surrogate alloy for transmutation fuels, with high Zr contents (15, 20, and 25 wt%) were mixed via electromagnetic stirring, and fuel slugs were successfully cast to the full length of the mold without macrodefects. From chemical composition analysis by ICP-AES, the Zr content of the U–Zr slugs matched well with the target composition, to within 5% difference. The microstructure examined by SEM showed that with an increase in the Zr concentration, the lamellar structure was reduced, and Zr-rich inclusions were uniformly distributed over the fuel slugs.