Purchase of a Spark Plasma Sintering Furnace

Tender description

The University has recently been awarded £1M to further develop the Nuclear Fuel Centre of Excellence (NFCE), which was opened last year at a cost of £2.5M. This is a world-leading research centre, and one of a handful of academic sites in the world which are able to handle representative quantities of nuclear fuel. The additional funding has been secured to introduce the capability to develop Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF), i.e. those able to tolerate accident conditions while maintaining cladding integrity. As part of this research, the Nuclear Fuels group at the University is working to develop novel fuel forms, and exploring the use of alternative manufacturing routes. Through the NFCE, researchers are seeking to explore the use of Spark Plasma Sintering as an alternative manufacturing technique to traditional high temperature sintering for nuclear fuels. This will include the sintering of uranium dioxide pellets, with and without the inclusion of other materials. Alternative uranium compounds are also of interest, as are thorium compounds. A suitable Spark Plasma Sintering furnace is therefore required.