Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Helium diffusion in irradiated boron carbide. [LMFBR]

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6204757
Boron carbide has been internationally adopted as the neutron absorber material in the control and safety rods of large fast breeder reactors. Its relatively large neutron capture cross section at high neutron energies provides sufficient reactivity worth with a minimum of core space. In addition, the commercial availability of boron carbide makes it attractive from a fabrication standpoint. Instrumented irradiation experiments in EBR-II have provided continuous helium release data on boron carbide at a variety of operating temperatures. Although some microstructural and compositional variations were examined in these experiments most of the boron carbide was prototypic of that used in the Fast Flux Test Facility. The density of the boron carbide pellets was approximately 92% of theoretical. The boron carbide pellets were approximately 1.0 cm in diameter and possessed average grain sizes that varied from 8 to 30 ..mu..m. Pellet centerline temperatures were continually measured during the irradiation experiments.
Research Organization:
Hanford Engineering Development Lab., Richland, WA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC14-76FF02170
OSTI ID:
6204757
Report Number(s):
HEDL-SA-2236-FP; CONF-810528-10; ON: DE81027848
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English