Fission Product Release from Overheated Uranium - A Laboratory Study
Preliminary tests investigated the oxidation and ignition behavior of unirradiated uranium in air and steam. Small uranium cylinders were then irradiated to 2 x 1014 nvt and heated out-of-reactor under carefully controlled conditions, and the fractions of the fission product isotopes leaving the specimen were determined. Temperatures up to 1440 deg C for as long as 4 hr in atmospheres of air, steam, and helium were measured; release in air was from two to ten times greater than in steam, while in helium the release was v'ery low. Iodine, tellurium, and xenon were released in proportion to the amount of uranium oxidized. Cesium and ruthenium were found to be semi-volatile. The release of strontium, barium, and zirconium was found to be less than 0.2% under all conditions tested. Efiiciencies of several filter media in retaining volatilized fission products were also measured.
- Research Organization:
- General Electric Co., Richland, Wash.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- NSA Number:
- NSA-16-009047
- OSTI ID:
- 4808403
- Report Number(s):
- HW-SA-2040; 0017-9078
- Journal Information:
- Health Physics, Journal Name: Health Physics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 7; ISSN 0017-9078
- Publisher:
- Health Physics Society
- Country of Publication:
- Country unknown/Code not available
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Modeling of barium release from severely damaged fuel
EXPERIMENTS ON THE RELEASE OF FISSION PRODUCTS FROM MOLTEN REACTOR FUELS
Related Subjects
AIR
ATMOSPHERE
BARIUM
CESIUM
EFFICIENCY
FILTERS
FISSION PRODUCTS
HEATING
HELIUM
IODINE
IRRADIATION
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
OXIDATION
PARTICLES
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
QUANTITY RATIO
RADIOISOTOPES
REACTORS
RUTHENIUM
STEAM
STRONTIUM
TELLURIUM
TEMPERATURE
THERMAL RADIATION
URANIUM
URANIUM OXIDES
VOLATILITY
XENON
ZIRCONIUM