Evaluation of Alternate Materials for Coated Particle Fuels for the Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor. Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program FY 2006 Final Report
Candidate ceramic materials were studied to determine their suitability as Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor particle fuel coatings. The ceramics examined in this work were: TiC, TiN, ZrC, ZrN, AlN, and SiC. The studies focused on (i) chemical reactivity of the ceramics with fission products palladium and rhodium, (ii) the thermomechanical stresses that develop in the fuel coatings from a variety of causes during burnup, and (iii) the radiation resiliency of the materials. The chemical reactivity of TiC, TiN, ZrC, and ZrN with Pd and Rh were all found to be much lower than that of SiC. A number of important chemical behaviors were observed at the ceramic-metal interfaces, including the formation of specific intermetallic phases and a variation in reaction rates for the different ceramics investigated. Based on the data collected in this work, the nitride ceramics (TiN and ZrN) exhibit chemical behavior that is characterized by lower reaction rates with Pd and Rh than the carbides TiC and ZrC. The thermomechanical stresses in spherical fuel particle ceramic coatings were modeled using finite element analysis, and included contributions from differential thermal expansion, fission gas pressure, fuel kernel swelling, and thermal creep. In general the tangential stresses in the coatings during full reactor operation are tensile, with ZrC showing the lowest values among TiC, ZrC, and SiC (TiN and ZrN were excluded from the comprehensive calculations due to a lack of available materials data). The work has highlighted the fact that thermal creep plays a critical role in the development of the stress state of the coatings by relaxing many of the stresses at high temperatures. To perform ion irradiations of sample materials, an irradiation beamline and high-temperature sample irradiation stage was constructed at the University of Wisconsin’s 1.7MV Tandem Accelerator Facility. This facility is now capable of irradiating of materials to high dose while controlling sample temperature up to 800ºC.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-99ID-13727
- OSTI ID:
- 911682
- Report Number(s):
- INL/EXT-06-11749; TRN: US0800081
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ACCELERATORS
BURNUP
CARBIDES
CERAMICS
COATINGS
CREEP
FAST REACTORS
FISSION
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUEL PARTICLES
IRRADIATION
NITRIDES
PALLADIUM
RADIATIONS
REACTION KINETICS
REACTOR OPERATION
RHODIUM
STRESSES
SWELLING
THERMAL EXPANSION
ceramics
fuel coating
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor
particle fuel
thermal creep