Abstract: This report details progress in an intensive investigation which was launched to determine the basic mechanisms leading to gross loss of UO{sub 2} fuel upon thermal cycling of UO{sub 2}-W cermets and to suggest means of overcoming this serious operational problem. (This problem was recently uncovered at both Lewis Research Center and at Hanford). More than 40 separate experiments were conducted in four high temperature furnaces, at temperatures to 2600 C, pressures from 10{sup {minus}5} mm vacuum to 1000 psi, atmospheres including wet, pure and...
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Topics: 
Nuclear engineering
Mineralogy
Metallurgy