THE IRRADIATION OF ALUMINUM-PLUTONIUM ALLOYS IN ZIRCALOY SHEATHING. PART I. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS WITH ALUMINUM-URANIUM ALLOYS

Technical Report · Mon Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1958

OSTI ID:4294149

Jones, T I

Aluminum-uranium alloys containing up to 20 wt. % uranium were studied in a stand-in capacity as a prelude to a program of work with aluminum-plutonium alloys clad in Zircaloy-2. The object of the investigation was to examine the effect of temperature on the structure and hardness of the core alloys, their interaction with Zircaloy-2 at various tempera~res, and their corrosion properties in high-temperature water. Diffusion bonds were formed between Zircaloy-2 and aluminum--10 wt.% uranium alloy by heating at 600 deg C for 1 hour. However, the large difference in expansion co-efficients caused failure of the bonds during cooling. Heating at immediately above the solidus temperature (640 deg C) of the core alloys caused rapid sheath dissolution, sheath integrity being maintained for only a few hours. Hypo-eutectic alloys possessed good resistance to water at 340 deg C( approximates 0.004" penetration in 2 hours) whereas exfoliation 0.040 to 0.080'' deep occurred with the hyper-eutectic alloys. Aluminum-10 wt. % uranium alloys, canned with defected Zircaloy-2 sheathing, was as resistant to corrosion in water at 340' deg C as the corresponding bare alloy. (auth)

• Research Organization: Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Chalk River, Ont.
• NSA Number: NSA-13-008916
• OSTI ID: 4294149
• Report Number(s): CRFD-810; AECL-735
• Country of Publication: Canada
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALUMINUM ALLOYS
BONDING
CANNING
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COOLING
CORROSION
DIFFUSION
EUTECTICS
EXPANSION
FAILURES
HARDNESS
HIGH TEMPERATURE
LATTICES
METALLURGY AND CERAMICS
PLUTONIUM ALLOYS
STABILITY
TEMPERATURE
URANIUM ALLOYS
WATER
ZIRCALOY