Oxidation of UO2 in dry and wet atmospheres

Technical paper submitted for peer-review, accepted, and presented at the 2018 Topfuel conference (September 30 - October 04, 2018). The conference was held in Prague, Czech Republic. ---Abstract--- One of the problems for which currently no quantitative answer can be given, are the degradation kinetics of spent nuclear fuel under different atmospheres. In the present contribution, we report on preliminary results after low-temperature moisturized atmosphere oxidation of UO2, and the results are compared to recent results of dry air oxidation. The first results indicate that the addition of moisture results in a slight moderation of the oxidation reaction, when compared to dry oxidizing conditions