Unrestrained swelling of uranium nitride fuel irradiated at temperatures ranging from 1100 to 1400 K

Technical Report · Sat Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1973

OSTI ID:4386915

Rohal, R G; Tambling, T N

Six fuel pins were assembled, encapsulated, and irradiated in the Plum Brook Reactor. The fuel pins employed uranium mononitride (UN) in a stainless steel (type 304L) clad. The pins were irradiated for approximately 4000 hours to burnups of about 2.0 atom percent uranium. The average clad surface temperature during irradiation was about 1100 deg K. Since stainless steel has a very low creep strength relative to that of UN at this temperature, these tests simulated unrestrained swelling of UN. The tests results indicated that at 1 percent uranium atom burnup the unrestrained diametrical swelling of UN is about 0.5, 0.8, and 1.0 percent at l223, 1264, and 1308 deg K, respectively. The test results also indicated that the irradiation induced swelling of unrestrained UN fuel pellets appears to be isotropic. (STAR)

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cleveland, Ohio (USA). Lewis Research Center
• NSA Number: NSA-29-016141
• OSTI ID: 4386915
• Report Number(s): N--73-30659; NASA-TM-X--2907; E--7464
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

*FUEL PINS-- PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
*STAINLESS STEEL-304L-- PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
*URANIUM NITRIDES-- PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
BURNUP
FUEL CANS
ISOTROPY
N50140* --Metals
Ceramics
& Other Materials--Ceramics & Cermets--Radiation Effects
N79300 --Reactors--Reactor Fuels
NEUTRON BEAMS
PBR REACTOR
PILE NEUTRONS
SWELLING
TIME DEPENDENCE
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE