PROGRESS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF URANIUM CARBIDE-TYPE FUELS

Technical Report · Fri Aug 21 04:00:00 EDT 1959

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4237729· OSTI ID:4237729

Rough, F. A.; Chubb, W. eds.

It has been corfirmed that uranium monocarbide can be prepared by reacting uranium metal powder with methane at about 650 C, and that sintered carbides of greater than 90% of theoretical density can be made. The cast density of carbides has been found to vary from 13.56 g/cm/sup 3/ for UC to 11.7 g/cm/sup 3/ for UC/sub 2/. The electrical resistivity of cast carbides has been found to vary from about 40 microhm-cm for UC to about 90 microhm-cm for UC/sub 2/ . About 500 ppm of iron or silicon has been found to decrease the quality of arc- melted castings of uranium monocarbide. Oxygen reacts with molten carbide to produce metal and carbon monoride. Nitrogen seems to react with molten carbide to displace carbon from the monocarbide and produce some dicarbide. Diffusion rates in the carbides have been found to be appreciable at 1600 C (D = 3.6 x 10/sup -8/ cm/sup 2//sec) and very rapid at 1980 C (D = 2.2 x 10/sup -6/ cm/ sup 2/sec). The activation energy for diffusion in this system is very high (92,000 cal/mole). Additional studies are in progress to determine suitable chemical methods of preparing carbides from available raw materials, to develop techniques for making highdensity compacts of carbide powder, to cast large shapes of carbide by melting techniques, to measure the mechanical and physical properties of cast uranium carbide and its alloys, to determine the chemical compatibility of carbides with various metals and reactor coolants, and to obtain information on the mechanism by which carbide-type compounds are damaged by fission fragments during neutron irradiation. (auth)

• Research Organization: Battelle Memorial Inst., Columbus, Ohio
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-92
• NSA Number: NSA-13-021171
• OSTI ID: 4237729
• Report Number(s): BMI-1370
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CARBON MONOXIDE
CASTING
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COOLANTS
DENSITY
DIFFUSION
ELECTRIC ARCS
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
EXCITATION
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUELS
HIGH TEMPERATURE
IMPURITIES
IRON
IRRADIATION
LATTICES
LIQUID METALS
MEASURED VALUES
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MELTING
METALLURGY AND CERAMICS
METHANE
NEUTRON BEAMS
NEUTRONS
NITROGEN
OXYGEN
POWDER METALLURGY
POWDERS
PREPARATION
RADIATION EFFECTS
REACTORS
SILICON
SINTERED MATERIALS
SINTERING
TENSILE PROPERTIES
TRACE AMOUNTS
URANIUM
URANIUM ALLOYS
URANIUM CARBIDES