Brandon mathematical model describing the effect of calcination and reduction parameters on specific surface area of UO2 powders

Uranium dioxide (UO2) powder has been widely used to prepare fuel pellets for commercial light water nuclear reactors. Among typical characteristics of the powder, specific surface area (SSA) is one of the most important parameter that determines the sintering ability of UO2 powder. This paper built up a mathematical model describing the effect of the fabrication parameters on SSA of UO2 powders. To the best of our knowledge, the Brandon model is used for the first time to describe the relationship between the essential fabrication parameters [reduction temperature (TR), calcination temperature (TC), calcination time (tC) and reduction time (tR)] and SSA of the obtained UO2 powder product. The proposed model was tested with Wilcoxon's rank sum test, showing a good agreement with the experimental parameters. The proposed model can be used to predict and control the SSA of UO2 powder.