An Evaluation of Potential Liner Materials for Eliminating FCCI in Irradiated Metallic Nuclear Fuel Elements
- Idaho National Laboratory, P. O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83403-1625 (United States)
Metallic nuclear fuels are being looked at as part of the Global Nuclear Energy Program for transmuting long live transuranic actinide isotopes contained in spent nuclear fuel into shorter-lived fission products. In order to optimize the performance of these fuels, the concept of using liners to eliminate the fuel/cladding chemical interactions that can occur during irradiation of a fuel element has been investigated. The potential liner materials Zr and V have been tested using solid-solid diffusion couples, consisting of liner materials butted against fuel alloys and against cladding materials. The couples were annealed at the relatively high temperature of 700 deg. C. This temperature would be the absolute maximum temperature present at the fuel/cladding interface for a fuel element in-reactor. Analysis was performed using a scanning electron microscope equipped with energy-dispersive and wavelength dispersive spectrometers (SEM/EDS/WDS) to evaluate any developed diffusion structures. At 700 deg. C, minimal interaction was observed between the metallic fuels and either Zr or V. Similarly, limited interaction was observed between the Zr and V and the cladding materials. The best performing liner material appeared to be the V, based on amounts of interaction. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 20979601
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Advanced nuclear fuel cycles and systems (GLOBAL 2007), Boise - Idaho (United States), 9-13 Sep 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 3 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of GLOBAL 2007 conference on advanced nuclear fuel cycles and systems, 1873 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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