METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FABRICATION OF TABLETTED FUEL FOR HEAT- GENERATING ELEMENTS Russian patent published in 2000 - IPC

FIELD: solid fuels. SUBSTANCE: uranium dioxide powder prepared from ammonium diuranate by wet reductive conversion method avoiding compaction operation is mixed with zinc stearate (dry binder) in inert gas medium and with uranium oxide U₃O₈ prepared from tablet waste after thermal air oxidation. Resulting mixture is pressed and sintered in reductive medium, after which polished in wet state by a set of diamond wheels with polishing surfaces selected according to formulas and dried. Imperfect tablets are discarded. Apparatus contains units for: uranium oxide and zinc stearate mixing, tablet pressing, tablet sintering, wet polishing, drying, and refuse processing, Tablet sintering unit is provided with mobile box serving as accumulator of boats with tablets and having tunnel furnace docking assembly. In wet polishing unit, diamond-coated wheel is dismountable and consists of four wheels with graininess from coarse to fine. EFFECT: increased yield of accepted tablets and reduced dust formation. 10 cl, 6 dwg