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EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDIRECTORATE-GENERAL

JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE

Directorate Resources

Resource Management Karlsruhe

ESRA Project reference

number 2015-KRU-E-20-000-5815  

Grain size effects on helium and fission

product behaviour in UO2 

Position for:

CATEGORY 20

The preparation of ceramic materials fornuclear applications requires the generation of

powders to be compacted and sintered intomonoliths, usually in the form of pellets. Animportant breakthrough is being made at theJRC-ITU with the installation of a Spark PlasmaSintering facility, opening new paths to reachhigh density fuel samples with hithertoinconceivable microstructures (in the

nanometre range) and compositions (e.g.inclusion of volatile fission product simulants)for separate effect tests.

The successful candidate will develop the SPSmethod to prepare oxide fuels with nano, sub-micron (including high burnup structure (HBS)

formed at the periphery of light water reactorfuel) and micron grain sizes. Doping with analpha emitter (238Pu) will open the path fordedicated separate effect safety tests, onhelium retention/release in UO2  as a function

of grain size. Traditional characterisationmethods (XRD, SEM, TEM) will be combined

with other advanced methods (XAS, NMR) andKnudsen cell mass spectrometry to providedetailed information on the structural changesand helium dynamics as function of irradiation

damage. In addition ion implantation will beused to augment alpha damage investigations.

Qualifications:

CAT. 20: The ideal candidate shall have auniversity degree giving access to doctoralstudies.

Requirements1:University degree shall be in chemistry,physics, geochemistry, materials science,

materials engineering or nuclear engineering,or comparable.

Advantages:Relevant professional experience.

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Institute for TransuraniumElements, Nuclear Fuel

Safety Unit and MaterialsResearch Unit

Marco ColognaThierry Wiss

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/institutes/itu 

Indicative duration2 

Preferred starting date

36 months

ASAP

JRC Site Karlsruhe, Germany

Rules https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/jrc_grantholder_rules.pdf  

2 CAT 20: min. 12 months / max. 36 months / CAT. 40: min. 3 months / max. 24 months 

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/institutes/ituhttps://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/institutes/ituhttps://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/jrc_grantholder_rules.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/jrc_grantholder_rules.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/jrc_grantholder_rules.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/jrc_grantholder_rules.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/jrc_grantholder_rules.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/institutes/itu