Thursday, October 06, 2011, 12:19

UO2/C mixture was made on Oct 4 and casted on a piece of glass costed with WD40, and let dried in the fume hood for 2days. 

Dried UO2/C mass = 64.95g

The batch is wrapped with a piece of graphite sheet and waiting to be heated in the evaporator.  

Currently, batch#1 is in the evaporator.

 Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 10:52

UO2/C mixture was loaded on a heatboat and wrapped with 3-Ta heat shields. 

Evaporator has been pumped down overnight, IG currently at 1.57e-6 Torr.

TGHT will be stepped up to 40A. 

Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 11:00  

TGHT @ 40A/0.128V, local @ 37A. IG @ 1.7e-6 Torr.  

Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 12:35 

TGHT tripped off @ 40A due to high vacuum (>8E-5 Torr).  See attachment#1

Vacuum has come down to 8.5e-6 Torr. 

Stepped up TGHT to 35A.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 15:19  

TGHT was held at 35A for 2.5 hrs.  IG @ 4.5e-5 Torr.

Initiated auto heating @ 0.1A/min, Max current @ 525A. 

 Thursday, October 20, 2011, 16:15

Vacuum suddenly increased to ~ 7.7e-5 Torr when TGHT @ 317A (see attachment#2).  There could be a shift in the material during the thermal reduction,

and caused a sudden spike in vacuum.

Currently, IG @ 5.2e-5 Torr, TGHT @ 316.7A.

TGHT reached to 525A and held for >4hrs before cooling down (see attachment#3)

UCx was removed from the evaporator and transferred to the Ar-glove box.  

The material looks great!