Hot Isostatic Press Can Optimization for Aluminum Cladding of U-10Mo Reactor Fuel Plates: FY12 Final Report and FY13 Update

Technical Report · Mon Aug 26 00:00:00 EDT 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1091310· OSTI ID:1091310

Clarke, Kester D. ^[1]; Crapps, Justin M. ^[1]; Scott, Jeffrey E. ^[1]; Aikin, Beverly ^[1]; Vargas, Victor D. ^[1]; Dvornak, Matthew J. ^[1]; Duffield, Andrew N. ^[1]; Weinberg, Richard Y. ^[1]; Alexander, David J. ^[1]; Montalvo, Joel D. ^[1]; Hudson, Richard W. ^[1]; Mihaila, Bogdan ^[1]; Liu, Cheng ^[1]; Lovato, Manuel L. ^[1]; Dombrowski, David E. ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Currently, the proposed processing path for low enriched uranium – 10 wt. pct. molybdenum alloy (LEU-10Mo) monolithic fuel plates for high power research and test reactors includes hot isostatic pressing (HIP) to bond the aluminum cladding that encapsulates the fuel foil. Initial HIP experiments were performed at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) on approximately ¼ scale “mini” fuel plate samples using a HIP can design intended for these smaller experimental trials. These experiments showed that, with the addition of a co-rolled zirconium diffusion barrier on the LEU-10Mo alloy fuel foil, the HIP bonding process is a viable method for producing monolithic fuel plates. Further experimental trials at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) effectively scaled-up the “mini” can design to produce full-size fuel prototypic plates. This report summarizes current efforts at LANL to produce a HIP can design that is further optimized for higher volume production runs. The production-optimized HIP can design goals were determined by LANL and Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) to include maintaining or improving the quality of the fuel plates produced with the baseline scaled-up mini can design, while minimizing material usage, improving dimensional stability, easing assembly and disassembly, eliminating machining, and significantly reducing welding. The initial small-scale experiments described in this report show that a formed-can approach can achieve the goals described above. Future work includes scaling the formed-can approach to full-size fuel plates, and current progress toward this goal is also summarized here.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/LANL
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1091310
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-13-26706
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS