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Title: UO2 + 5 vol% ZrB2 nano composite nuclear fuels with full boron retention and enhanced oxidation resistance

Abstract

The boron isotope (10B) can be used as a neutron absorber in UO2 to control the reactivity of nuclear fuel pellets, however, the boron source can react with oxygen source in UO2 to form B2O3 that vaporize readily at temperatures above 1200 °C. Unfortunately, the sintering of UO2 fuel requires hours holding at high temperature (>1700 °C), resulting in an inevitable B loss during sintering and unpredictable B concentration in final product. It is challenging to incorporate boron through a conventional sintering method. In this work, we demonstrated that spark plasma sintering (SPS), a field assisted sintering technology, can effectively densify UO2 + 5 vol% ZrB2 composite fuel pellets by rapid consolidation at 1600 °C for a short duration of 5 min under an applied pressure of 40 MPa. Further, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) measurements confirm that ZrB2 is fully retained inside the composite fuel pellets. Inside the composite fuel pellets, nano sized ZrB2 particles are uniformly distributed along the grain boundaries of the UO2 matrix. The ZrB2 particle transforms to a glassy B2O3 phase covering the sample surface and grain boundaries of UO2 matrix after a simple post-sintering annealing at 1000 °C in flowing Argon gas for 4 h. Themore » formed glassy B2O3 slows down the diffusion of oxygen ions and postpones the onset temperature for oxidation of UO2 from 400 °C to 550 °C. This study demonstrates the capability of SPS, an advanced fuel manufacturing technique, to achieve a full retention of ZrB2 in UO2 oxide fuel and increase oxidation resistance through a simple post-sintering annealing. The reported work holds great engineering potential for development of advanced oxide fuel for nuclear application.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States); Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
  2. Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States)
  3. Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, Hopkins, SC (United States)
  4. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, Hopkins, SC (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States); Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP); Westinghouse Electric Company; USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1960439
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1777596
Grant/Contract Number:  
NE0008532; AC07-05ID14517
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Ceramics International
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 46; Journal Issue: 17; Journal ID: ISSN 0272-8842
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; Nuclear fuel; Spark plasma sintering; Boron; Oxidation resistance; Thermogravimetric analysis

Citation Formats

Yao, Tiankai, Gong, Bowen, Lei, Penghui, Lu, Cai, Xu, Peng, Lahoda, Edward, and Lian, Jie. UO2 + 5 vol% ZrB2 nano composite nuclear fuels with full boron retention and enhanced oxidation resistance. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.06.303.
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Yao, Tiankai, Gong, Bowen, Lei, Penghui, Lu, Cai, Xu, Peng, Lahoda, Edward, & Lian, Jie. UO2 + 5 vol% ZrB2 nano composite nuclear fuels with full boron retention and enhanced oxidation resistance. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.06.303
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Yao, Tiankai, Gong, Bowen, Lei, Penghui, Lu, Cai, Xu, Peng, Lahoda, Edward, and Lian, Jie. Fri . "UO2 + 5 vol% ZrB2 nano composite nuclear fuels with full boron retention and enhanced oxidation resistance". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.06.303. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1960439.
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@article{osti_1960439,
title = {UO2 + 5 vol% ZrB2 nano composite nuclear fuels with full boron retention and enhanced oxidation resistance},
author = {Yao, Tiankai and Gong, Bowen and Lei, Penghui and Lu, Cai and Xu, Peng and Lahoda, Edward and Lian, Jie},
abstractNote = {The boron isotope (10B) can be used as a neutron absorber in UO2 to control the reactivity of nuclear fuel pellets, however, the boron source can react with oxygen source in UO2 to form B2O3 that vaporize readily at temperatures above 1200 °C. Unfortunately, the sintering of UO2 fuel requires hours holding at high temperature (>1700 °C), resulting in an inevitable B loss during sintering and unpredictable B concentration in final product. It is challenging to incorporate boron through a conventional sintering method. In this work, we demonstrated that spark plasma sintering (SPS), a field assisted sintering technology, can effectively densify UO2 + 5 vol% ZrB2 composite fuel pellets by rapid consolidation at 1600 °C for a short duration of 5 min under an applied pressure of 40 MPa. Further, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) measurements confirm that ZrB2 is fully retained inside the composite fuel pellets. Inside the composite fuel pellets, nano sized ZrB2 particles are uniformly distributed along the grain boundaries of the UO2 matrix. The ZrB2 particle transforms to a glassy B2O3 phase covering the sample surface and grain boundaries of UO2 matrix after a simple post-sintering annealing at 1000 °C in flowing Argon gas for 4 h. The formed glassy B2O3 slows down the diffusion of oxygen ions and postpones the onset temperature for oxidation of UO2 from 400 °C to 550 °C. This study demonstrates the capability of SPS, an advanced fuel manufacturing technique, to achieve a full retention of ZrB2 in UO2 oxide fuel and increase oxidation resistance through a simple post-sintering annealing. The reported work holds great engineering potential for development of advanced oxide fuel for nuclear application.},
doi = {10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.06.303},
journal = {Ceramics International},
number = 17,
volume = 46,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.06.303
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