Study of the U-Am-O ternary phase diagram (original) (raw)

Americium isotopes are the main contributors to the long-term radiotoxicity of the nuclear wastes, after the plutonium extraction. Among the reprocessing scenarios, the transmutation in fast neutron reactors using uranium-americium mixed oxide (U,Am)O2±x pellets seems promising. In this frame, the knowledge of the thermodynamics of the U-Am-O ternary system is of essential for the prediction of the behavior of (U,Am)O2 pellets and their possible interaction with the cladding, under normal and accidental conditions. This thesis is dedicated to the experimental investigation of U-Am mixed oxides on a wide range of Am contents (7.5 at.% ≤ Am/(Am+U) ≤ 70 at.%), with the aim to collect data for developing a thermodynamic model based on the semi-empirical CALPHAD method. The obtained results can be classified in three categories: structural, phase diagram and thermodynamic data. For the thermodynamic modeling of the ternary system, the assessment of the binary sub-systems is first require...