Studies during the last two years have shown that the pneumatic impaction process is a flexible process for the production of cermet fuel elements. However, there is still much basic information to be acquired about the process before the limits of process capability can be established. Development work proposed herein is intended to continue optimization of the process, to establish the process parameters necessary to a pilot plant or production line operation, and to better define the process limitations.

Early work on the interaction of high energy deuterons with large /sup 238/U targets is reexamined and current theoretical study is discussed. Results of fission and neutron yield calculations are compared with experiment. (SDF)

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Twenty-four 0.225-in.-diameter and six 0.290-in.-diameter UO/sub 2/ specimens clad with 80 mils of niobium-1 w/o zirconium were irradiated to burnups of 1.4 to 6.0 at. % of uranium at surface temperatures of 900 to 1400/sup 0/C. UO/sub 2/ and lithium were found to be incompatible at these temperatures, and the thick cladding was used primarily to minimize the chances of contact of UO/sub 2/ and the lithium coolant. The thickly clad specimens did not undergo any dimensional changes as a result of irradiation, although it was found that movement of UO/sub 2/ took place in the axial direction by a vaporization-redeposition mechanism. It was found that 32 to 87% of the fission gases was released from the fuel, depending on the temperature of the specimen. Metallographic examination of longitudinal and transverse sections of the specimens indicated the usual UO/sub 2/ microstructure with columnar grains. Grain-boundary thickening was observed in the UO/sub 2/ at higher burnups. The oxygen/uranium ratio of UO/sub 2/ increased with increasing burnup.