New correlation law for melting temperature of MOX fuels

This work was carried out as part of WP3 on Fuel properties with high Pu content: Measurements and modelling, dedicated to the assessment of the main properties of irradiated and non-irradiated MOX fuel, in order to reduce significantly sources of uncertainty in the safety evaluation. In Task 3.3, thermodynamic properties of the fuel are evaluated. In this work, all available experimental data on fresh (U,Pu)O2±x oxides from the literature and measured in frame of the ESNII+, ESFR-SMART and PUMMA projects are reviewed. Data were measured using conventional thermal analysis or advanced laser heating techniques. Based on the analysis of uncertainties, a selection of experimental data is proposed. Data calculated using the CALPHAD model recently published by Fouquet-Métivier et al. are compared to these experimental data. Finally the data are used as input to derive a new correlation law for fresh fuel, to be used in Fuel Performance Codes.