Synthesis of phase-pure U 2 N 3 microspheres and its decomposition into UN
Uranium mononitride (UN) is important as a nuclear fuel. Fabrication of UN in its microspherical form also has its own merits since the advent of the concept of accident-tolerant fuel, where UN is being considered as a potential fuel in the form of TRISO particles. But, not many processes have been well established to synthesize kernels of UN. Therefore, a process for synthesis of microspherical UN with a minimum amount of carbon is discussed herein. First, a series of single-phased microspheres of uranium sesquinitride (U 2 N 3 ) were synthesized by nitridation of UO 2 +C microspheres at a few different temperatures. Resulting microspheres were of low-density U 2 N 3 and decomposed into low-density UN. The variation of density of the synthesized sesquinitrides as a function of its chemical composition indicated the presence of extra (interstitial) nitrogen atoms corresponding to its hyperstoichiometry, which is normally indicated as α-U 2 N 3 . Average grain sizes of both U 2 N 3 and UN varied in a range of 1–2.5 μm. In addition, these had a considerably large amount of pore spacing, indicating the potential sinterability of UN toward its use as a nuclear fuel.