Dorn Method in the Study of Initial Phase of Uranium Dioxide Sintering

The Dorn method, most commonly used to measure the activation energy of creep, was used to study the initial stage of sintering uranium dioxide in hydrogen from 700° to 850°C. The activation energy was approximately 100 kcal/mole. This result agrees with the value determined from analysis of isothermal shrinkage curves in the same temperature interval.