Process for alloying uranium and niobium

Patent · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:867771

Holcombe, Cressie E ^[1]; Masters, David R ^[2]; Chapman, Lloyd R ^[2]

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1. Farragut, TN
2. Knoxville, TN

Alloys such as U-6Nb are prepared by forming a stacked sandwich array of uraniun sheets and niobium powder disposed in layers between the sheets, heating the array in a vacuum induction melting furnace to a temperature such as to melt the uranium, holding the resulting mixture at a temperature above the melting point of uranium until the niobium dissolves in the uranium, and casting the uranium-niobium solution. Compositional uniformity in the alloy product is enabled by use of the sandwich structure of uranium sheets and niobium powder.

• Research Organization: LOCKHEED MARTIN ENRGY SYST INC
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• Assignee: United States of America as represented by United States (Washington, DC)
• Patent Number(s): US 5006306
• OSTI ID: 867771
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/420/148/
alloy
alloy product
alloying
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array
casting
compositional
disposed
dissolves
enabled
forming
furnace
heating
holding
induction
induction melting
layers
melt
melting
melting furnace
mixture
niobium
niobium alloy
niobium alloys
powder
prepared
process
product
resulting
resulting mixture
sandwich
sheets
solution
stacked
structure
temperature
u-6nb
uniformity
uranium
uranium-niobium
uraniun
vacuum