Helium solubility and behaviour in uranium dioxide

A set of devices was developed in order to infuse UO2 disks with helium, at high temperature and pressure, to measure the helium infused quantity and from these data to calculate the helium solubility in the UO2 matrix. Samples of UO2 single crystal and UO2 polycrystal were infused at a temperature of 1473 and 1743 K in a helium atmosphere ranging between 50 and 100 MPa. These samples were then annealed and the helium released was measured with a mass spectrometer. From the obtained spectra it was possible to give an interpretation of the helium release mechanism and to calculate its solubility in the UO2 lattice in these specific thermodynamic conditions. Additionally to the helium solubility measurement from infused samples, a 37 years old sample of 238PuO2, retrieved from an old 242Cm radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), containing radiogenic helium, was also measured to widen perspectives of this kind of measurements to damaged sample more representative of spent fuel.