Use of a reference oxygen potential of -100 kcal/mol to produce an O/M of 2.000 is confirmed by these results. The individual and solid solution oxides were isothermally equilibrated with controlled oxygen potentials between 8☌ and the equilibrated O/ M ratios calculated with corrections for impurities and buoyancy effects. A solid solution uranium-plutonium oxide O/M reference material was prepared by alloying the uranium and plutonium metals in a yttrium oxide crucible more » at 1200☌ and oxidizing with moist He at 250☌. Uranium oxide and plutonium oxide O/M reference materials were prepared by in situ oxidation of high purity metals in the thermobalance. Fabrication of a high-temperature oxygen electrode, employing an electro-active tip of oxygen-deficient solid-state electrolyte, intended to confirm gaseous oxygen potentials is described. The oxygen-to-metal atom ratio, or O/M, of solid solution uranium- plutonium oxide reactor fuel is a measure of the concentration of crystal defects in the oxide which affect many fuel properties, particularly, fuel oxygen potential. These differences are important from a nuclear safety analysis standpoint and the simpler models now in use may not, as presently thought, give a conservative estimate of peak plutonium concentration and total plutonium inventory. First, the plutonium concentration peak is higher in the more detailed model and second, the total plutonium inventory is higher in the detailed model. In addition, the concentration more » profiles for Pu(III) and Pu (IV) are not greatly different for the three models, however two important points stand out. All three models meet the required purity specifications for the uranium and the plutonium product streams. Three different versions of the model were compared against data from the partitioning column at the Hanford Plutonium Reclamation Facility. It was written to include the chemical kinetics of five key chemical reactions involved in the partition of uranium and plutonium using hydroxylamine as the reductant and hydrazine as a stabilizing agent.
The stagewise mathematical model is similar to the differenced form of a continuous differential model. A ''state-of-the-art'' simulation of a pulse column for nuclear fuel reprocessing was developed.
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