Cameco UO3 Materials Analysis

Uranium trioxide (UO{sub 3}) was characterized using a variety of techniques to better understand its physical properties. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were collected to examine particle morphology, which consisted of semi-spherical particles that tended to agglomerate before sonication. Particle size analysis revealed a singular mode distribution with a mean particle size of 43.0 {micro}m. After sonication a bimodal distribution was produced with peak particle sizes at 0.226 {micro}m and 9.43 {micro}m. The O/U ratio was measured to be 3.09 by Cameco in 2009, by gravimetric analysis. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the sample was mostly {gamma}-UO{sub 3} (87.1%) with a small amount of UO{sub 3} {center_dot} 0.80 H{sub 2}O (12.9%). Bulk and tap densities were determined to be 3.678 {+-} 0.2 and 4.81 {+-} 0.2 g/cm{sup 3}, respectively (crystalline density is 7.3 g/cm{sup 3}). The stoichiometry was measured to be 2.99 in 2012.