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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Irradiation performance of helium-bonded uranium--plutonium carbide fuel elements. [LMFBR]

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6323150
The current irradiation program of helium-bonded uranium--plutonium carbide elements is achieving its original goals. By August 1978, 15 of the original 171 helium-bonded elements had reached their goal burnups including one that had reached the highest burnup of any uranium--plutonium carbide element in the U.S.--12.4 at.%. A total of 66 elements had attained burnups over 8 at.%. Only one cladding breach had been identified at that time. In addition, the systematic and coordinated approach to the current steady-state irradiation tests is yielding much needed information on the behavior of helium-bonded carbide fuel elements that was not available from the screening tests (1965 to 1974). The use of hyperstoichiometric (U,Pu)C containing approx. 10 vol% (U,Pu)/sub 2/C/sub 3/ appears to combine lower swelling with only a slightly greater tendency to carburize the cladding than single-phase (U,Pu)C. The selected designs are providing data on the relationship between the experimental parameters of fuel density, fuel-cladding gap size, and cladding type and various fuel-cladding mechanical interaction mechanisms.
Research Organization:
Los Alamos Scientific Lab., NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
6323150
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-78-2932; CONF-790306-3
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English