Abstract: Methods for making nuclear fuel compacts containing precise amounts of nuclear fuel material which exhibit low heavy metal contamination and fewer defective coatings following compact fabrication using a hardenable binder including petroleum pitch or the like. Nuclear fuel particles having a multiple layer fission-product-retentive barrier, with a dense outer layer thereof being surrounded by a protective overcoating, e.g., pyrocarbon having a density between about 1 and 1.2 g/cm.sup.3, that is encapsulated within a thin shell of pyrocarbon from about 1.7 to about 2 g/cm.sup.3 in density, can be precisely metered to create charges containing very precise amounts of nuclear fuel material that can be pre-compacted in molds under relatively high pressures and then combined with the fluid binder which is ultimately carbonized to produce carbonaceous compacts containing very precise nuclear fuel loadings.