Mechanistic nuclear fuel performance modeling of uranium nitride

Rizk, Jason Tyler; Cooper, Michael William Donald; Simon, Pierre-Clément A.; Schneider, Anton Jacques; Andersson, Anders David Ragnar; Novascone, Stephen R.; Matthews, Christopher

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2024.155604

Mechanistic nuclear fuel performance modeling of uranium nitride

Journal Article · Sun Jan 12 23:00:00 EST 2025 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2024.155604· OSTI ID:2500870

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Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Uranium mononitride (UN) is a nuclear fuel candidate for advanced reactor designs and an alternative being considered for light water reactors due to its higher thermal conductivity and uranium density than UO₂. As with any nuclear fuel, swelling and fission gas release are important factors for safety, while also being some of the hardest phenomena to predict with a high degree of confidence. Getting a grasp on the gas swelling behavior and release is crucial to lower the barrier for UN utilization. An accelerated swelling rate at high temperatures observed experimentally, sometimes referred to as “breakaway swelling,” further complicates the prediction of fuel performance of UN. A mechanistic model has been developed using a multiscale approach to describe the intragranular and intergranular fission gas behavior. Lower-length-scale calculations have been employed to inform models of the gas and self-diffusion behavior, resolution rate, and bubble shape. Leveraging previous work on high burnup UO₂, two populations of intragranular bubbles are considered; small bulk bubbles and larger bubbles located along dislocations. The dislocation bubbles were found to be crucial to the overall swelling behavior, and the breakaway swelling transition was associated with the transition in the gas atom diffusion mechanism from an irradiation-induced athermal diffusion regime at lower temperatures to an intrinsic thermal equilibrium regime at higher temperatures, accelerating the growth of the dislocation bubbles. Similarly, the threshold for fission gas release was associated with the grain boundary vacancy diffusivity surpassing the gas atom diffusivity at sufficiently high temperatures, allowing the over-pressurized grain boundary bubble to grow in size and interconnect. Using thermo-mechanical models with the fission gas model, two integral fuel pin assessment cases were simulated. Finally, this work demonstrates the ability of a multiscale approach to accelerate the understanding of advanced fuel forms when experimental data is limited.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC07-05ID14517; 89233218CNA000001

OSTI ID:: 2500870

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2510920

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--24-26543

Journal Information:: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Journal Name: Journal of Nuclear Materials Vol. 606; ISSN 0022-3115

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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