| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2023 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Microstructural, Mechanical and Chemical Behavior of Solid Nuclear Fuel and Fuel-cladding Interface
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| Presentation Title |
Microstructure and Phase Evolutions of U-Zr System in Thermal Cycling Neutron Diffraction Experiments |
| Author(s) |
Yi Xie, Sven C. Vogel, Michael T. Benson, Jason M. Harp |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Yi Xie |
| Abstract Scope |
The U-10Zr (wt.%) fuel is the leading fuel candidate for sodium-cooled fast reactor due to high fissile density, high thermal conductivity, ease of fabrication, and good compatibility with coolants. The U-10Zr fuel is anticipated to be fabricated in rod geometry by extrusion technology. Understanding the microstructure and phase evolutions as a result of irradiation and thermal cycling at elevated temperatures is of paramount importance for the development and ultimately licensing of this fuel form. The compositions with higher Zr contents are also important as during reactor operation the Zr redistributes and results in a Zr-rich fuel center region as high as U-50Zr (wt.%). We carried out thermal cycling neutron diffraction experiments on the extruded U-10Zr, as-cast U-35Zr and U-50Zr, analyzed the evolutions of microstructure and phase from the time-of-flight neutron diffraction data, with a focus on lattice parameter, atom ordering, unit cell volume, texture, and weight fractions. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Phase Transformations, Characterization |