Fabrication and Characterization of U–Zr Fuel Slug for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor

Metal fuel slugs of U–Zr alloys for a Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) have conventionally been fabricated by a vacuum injection casting method. Recently, the management of minor actinides (MA) has become an important issue because the direct disposal of the long-lived MA can be a long-term burden for a tentative repository of up to several hundreds of thousand of years. To prevent the evaporation of volatile elements such as Am, alternative fabrication methods of metal fuel slugs have been studied by applying gravity casting, and improved injection casting in KAERI, including melting under an inert atmosphere. Metal fuel slugs were then examined based on the casting soundness and density to evaluate the feasibility of the fabrication method.