2018 | AFC ACCOMPLISHMENTS 50 Sintering kinetics of U3Si2 in commercial atmospheres Principal Investigator: Joshua T.White Collaborators: Aditya Shivprasad and Chris Grote Figure 1. Sintering traces for U3Si2 while varying the atmosphere in the glove box dilatometer. The low temperature expansion observed in the 6% H2 /Ar specimen is believed to be hydriding of the sample. High uranium density fuels have received new interest in the Nuclear Technology Research and Development (NTRD) Program’s Advanced Fuels Campaign (AFC) as a potential replacement for UO2 in commercial light water reactor (LWR). Research this fiscal year (FY) has focused on the instal- lation of an inert atmosphere glove box with a dilatometer and simul- taneous thermal analyzer. Sintering studies were then conducted on U3Si2 in a number of potential commercial atmospheres to study the impact this has on densification of monolithic fuel pellets. Project Description: One of the identified issues with high uranium density fuels is that the powders readily oxidize even when low O levels are present which leads to decreased sinterability in the powders. For example, U3Si2