Zirconium Determination by Cooling Curve Analysis during the Pyroprocessing of Used Nuclear Fuel
An alternative method to sampling and chemical analyses has been developed to monitor the concentration of zirconium in real-time during the casting of uranium products from the pyroprocessing of used nuclear fuel. The method utilizes the solidification characteristics of the uranium products to determine zirconium levels based on standard cooling curve analyses and established binary phase diagram data. Numerous uranium products have been analyzed for their zirconium content and compared against measured zirconium data. From this data, a relationship was derived that incorporates the mass dependency of the uranium products since solidification monitoring is performed external to the melt. Using the relationship, a reasonable fit of calculated to measured zirconium content was established considering the errors in the system.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1177649
- Report Number(s):
- INL/JOU-14-31501
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 456
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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