Fabrication of Uniform Ce/Eu Oxide Microparticles by a Microfluidic Co-Sol-Gel Process as an Analog Preparation of MA-Bearing Ceramic Nuclear Fuel Particles

The transmutation concept of minor actinide (MA)–bearing nuclear fuel plays an important role in managing highly radioactive waste. A facile route combining the sol-gel process and microfluidic technology was presented to fabricate Ce/Eu oxide microspheres as a surrogate for plutonium-based MA-bearing nuclear fuel. Uniform Ce/Eu oxide microspheres with a varied Eu content (7.90%, 13.00%, and 17.56%) were successfully fabricated using the co-sol-gel method. The prepared microspheres had a narrow size distribution (coefficient of variance < 2%) and excellent sphericity (d_max/d_min < 1.09). The Ce and Eu elements were shown to have a relatively homogeneous distribution in the microspheres through energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping images. Thermal behavior analysis, microstructure observation, and crystalline structure analysis were conducted systematically. The X-ray diffraction patterns showed one cubic lattice structure for all of the samples.