Neutron Diffraction Measurement of Residual Stresses, Dislocation Density and Texture in Zr-bonded U-10Mo ''Mini'' Fuel Foils and Plates

Technical Report · Thu Aug 07 00:00:00 EDT 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1136458· OSTI ID:1136458

Brown, Donald W. ^[1]; Okuniewski, M. A. ^[2]; Sisneros, Thomas A. ^[1]; Clausen, Bjorn ^[1]; Moore, G. A. ^[2]; Balogh, L ^[3]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
3. Queen's Univ., Kingston, ON (Canada)

Aluminum clad monolithic uranium 10 weight percent molybdenum (U-10Mo) fuel plates are being considered for conversion of several research and test nuclear reactors from high-enriched to low-enriched uranium fuel due to the inherently high density of fissile material. Comprehensive neutron diffraction measurements of the evolution of the textures, residual phase stresses, and dislocation densities in the individual phases of the mini-foils throughout several processing steps and following hot-isostatic pressing to the Al cladding, have been completed. Recovery and recrystallization of the bare U-10Mo fuel foil, as indicated by the dislocation density and texture, are observed depending on the state of the material prior to annealing and the duration and temperature of the annealing process. In general, the HIP procedure significantly reduces the dislocation density, but the final state of the clad plate, both texture and dislocation density, depends strongly on the final processing step of the fuel foil. In contrast, the residual stresses in the clad fuel plate do not depend strongly on the final processing step of the bare foil prior to HIP bonding. Rather, the residual stresses are dominated by the thermal expansion mismatch of the constituent materials of the fuel plate.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1136458
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-14-22709; TRN: US1500371
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
SLIGHTLY ENRICHED URANIUM
RESIDUAL STRESSES
DISLOCATIONS
NEUTRON DIFFRACTION
DENSITY
FUEL PLATES
FOILS
HOT PRESSING
TEXTURE
ANNEALING
ALUMINIUM
CLADDING
THERMAL EXPANSION
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TIME DEPENDENCE
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
RECRYSTALLIZATION
URANIUM BASE ALLOYS
MOLYBDENUM ALLOYS
BINARY ALLOY SYSTEMS
BONDING
ZIRCONIUM