Heat release rate from the combustion of uranium

Fuel treatment is planned at the Argonne National Laboratory on EBR-II spent fuel. The electrochemical treatment process is carried out in a cell with an argon atmosphere to prevent any reaction. The amount of fuel processed at any time is limited by the amount of energy which could be released by metal combustion if air is inadvertently allowed into the cell since the heat release would increase the cell pressure. The cell pressure is required to be below atmospheric even if combustion occurs to ensure no cell gas/aerosol is released to the environment. Metal fires can release large amounts of heat. In certain configurations such as fine particulate, metal can be pyrophoric at room temperature. When the metal is a nuclear fuel, it is important to be able to predict the reaction/heat release rate if the metal is inadvertently exposed to air. A realistic combustion model is needed to predict heat release rates for the many different flow and transport configurations which exist in the various fuel processing steps. A model for the combustion of uranium is developed here which compares satisfactorily to experimental data