Modeling defect and fission gas properties in U-Si fuels

Technical Report · Fri Apr 14 04:00:00 EDT 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1352406· OSTI ID:1352406

Andersson, Anders David Ragnar ^[1]; Stanek, Christopher Richard ^[1]; Noordhoek, Mark J. ^[2]; Besmann, Theodore M. ^[2]; Middleburgh, Simon C. ^[3]; Lahoda, E. J. ^[4]; Chernatynskiy, Aleksandr ^[5]; Grimes, Robin W. ^[6]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
3. Westinghouse Electric Sweden, Vasteras (Sweden)
4. Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, Cranberry Woods, PA (United States)
5. Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO (United States)
6. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)

Uranium silicides, in particular U₃Si₂, are being explored as an advanced nuclear fuel with increased accident tolerance as well as competitive economics compared to the baseline UO2 fuel. They benefit from high thermal conductivity (metallic) compared to UO₂ fuel (insulator or semi-conductor) used in current Light Water Reactors (LWRs). The U-Si fuels also have higher fissile density. In order to perform meaningful engineering scale nuclear fuel performance simulations, the material properties of the fuel, including the response to irradiation environments, must be known. Unfortunately, the data available for USi fuels are rather limited, in particular for the temperature range where LWRs would operate. The ATF HIP is using multi-scale modeling and simulations to address this knowledge gap.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1352406
• Report Number(s): LA--UR-17-23072
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS