Plasma-Chemical Synthesis and Investigation of Nano-Size Oxide Compositions Simulating Uranium-Thorium Dispersion Nuclear Fuel

A promising direction of advancement in nuclear energy is the use of uranium-thorium dispersion nuclear fuel, which consists of fissile metal (uranium, thorium) oxides evenly distributed in an oxide matrix having a high thermal conductivity and small neutron absorption cross-section. The methods of obtaining oxide composites (sol-gel process, separate production, mechanical mixing, and others) are multistaged, do not afford a uniform distribution of phases, and have high energy consumption. This article discusses the plasma- chemical synthesis of nanosized oxide composites in an air-plasma flow of dispersed aqueous-organic nitrate solutions with heat value equal to at least 8.4 MJ/kg, affording significant energy consumption reduction and uniform phase distribution with the required phase composition.