Patent ID: 8557148

Claim:
A method for fabricating a sintered annular nuclear fuel pellet, the method comprising: pressing nuclear fuel powder or granule to fabricate an annular nuclear fuel green body; inserting a rod-like shaped structure into the annular nuclear fuel green body; sintering the rod-like shaped structure-inserted annular nuclear fuel green body in a reductive gas atmosphere; and separating the sintered annular nuclear fuel pellet from the rod-like shaped structure, wherein a diameter of the rod-like structure is less than an inner diameter of the annular nuclear fuel green body and is equal to or greater than a largest inner diameter of the sintered annular nuclear fuel pellet without the rod-like structure inserted therein, and wherein the rod-like structure has a coefficient of thermal expansion which is equal to or greater than that of the sintered annular nuclear fuel pellet wherein the rod-like structure maintains substantially the same diameter as that before the sintering.