Irradiation of Miniature Fuel Specimens in the High Flux Isotope Reactor

Technical Report · Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1458354· OSTI ID:1458354

Petrie, Christian M. ^[1]; Burns, Joseph R. ^[1]; Morris, Robert Noel ^[1]; Smith, Kurt R. ^[1]; Le Coq, Annabelle G. ^[1]; Terrani, Kurt A. ^[1]

---

1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The Advanced Fuels Campaign (AFC) within the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy is considering several advanced ceramic fuels for use in light water reactors (LWRs) and/or advanced reactor concepts. Advanced fuels, such as uranium carbide (UC), uranium nitride (UN), and uranium silicide (U₃Si₂) offer increased uranium density and enhanced thermophysical properties compared to conventional UO₂ fuel, while maintaining an acceptably high melting point. Enhancements to traditional UO₂ are also being considered that would increase the thermal conductivity of the fuel and fission product retention through various additives. However, some of these advanced fuels have very limited information available on their irradiation performance (microstructural evolution, swelling, fission gas release, etc.), particularly for the range of temperature and burnup that are relevant for LWR fuel pins. To address this issue, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed an experimental facility to irradiate miniature fuel specimens in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). The small size of the fuel specimens simplifies the design, analysis, and post-irradiation evaluations. Post-irradiation examination will provide basic data on the stability and behavior of advanced fuels as a function of temperature and burnup. This report briefly summarizes the experiment facility design concept and the assembly of the first set of experiments. The experiment contains six different types of UN-based fuel kernels UN TRISO particles with varying densities, impurity levels, and burnable absorber contents. The experiments were successfully assembled, welded, evaluated, and delivered to the HFIR along with a complete quality assurance fabrication package. Pictures of the assembly process are included in this report. The experiment is planned for insertion into the HFIR during cycle 480 (June 2018).

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1458354
• Report Number(s): ORNL/SPR-2018/874; TRN: US1901654
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS