Characterizing surrogates to develop an additive manufacturing process for U3Si2 nuclear fuel
U3Si2 is considered as an accident-tolerant nuclear fuel candidate due to its promising high uranium density along with its improved thermal properties. The current U3Si2 powder metallurgical fabrication process encompasses numerous process steps with extensive fabrication times. Thus, an additive manufacturing process to fabricate U3Si2 is currently under development to ultimately produce U3Si2 fuel at a lower cost, in a timely and commercially-reliable manner. The current research work seeks to characterize U3Si2 surrogate materials fabricated by a laser synthesis. The characterization results provided novel microstructural data that aided in the early development stages of an additive manufacturing process. For this study, cerium, zirconium, and hafnium, were selected as surrogates based on their thermodynamic properties and crystal structure. As a result, the laser-synthesized samples were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) along with X-ray diffraction (XRD), where the different phases of formation, morphology, and microstructural features have been analyzed. Laser synthesis showed suitability for alloying Zr-Si and Hf-Si to ultimately form silicide compounds (Zr3Si2 and Hf3Si2).
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Nuclear Engineering
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1562889
- Report Number(s):
- INL/JOU-18-46022-Rev000; TRN: US2000771
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 518, Issue C; ISSN 0022-3115
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Development of an AES based analytical method for the determination of trace metallic impurities in uranium silicide dispersion fuel: from precursors to end products
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journal | January 2020 |
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