PREPARATION METHOD OF NUCLEAR FUEL PELLET INCLUDING THERMAL CONDUCTIVE METAL, AND THE NUCLEAR FUEL PELLET THEREBY

摘要

The present invention relates to a method to manufacture a nuclear fuel pellet including thermally-conductive metal, and a nuclear fuel pellet manufactured thereby. The method includes: a step (step 1) of manufacturing oxide nuclear fuel granules having 30 to 45 % of theoretical density (T.D.); a step (step 2) of mixing the granules, manufactured in the step 1, with thermally conductive metal powder; a step (step 3) of manufacturing a formed body by forming the granules, mixed with the thermally conductive metal powder at the step 2; and a step (step 4) of sintering the formed body of the step 3. According to the present invention, the method is capable of obtaining excellent compatibility with the existing commercial manufacturing process since the sintering is able to be performed in the same reducing gas atmosphere as the commercial manufacturing process by directly using the thermally conductive metal, not metallic oxide. Moreover, since there are not oxide liquid forming and reducing steps, the distributional homogeneity of metallic materials in the pellet is excellent, and therefore, a nuclear pellet, in which a metal network and a microstructure are homogeneously distributed from the inside to the edge, is able to be manufactured.