IRRADIATION PERFORMANCE OF U-Mo MONOLITHIC FUEL

Meyer, M. K.; Gan, J.; Jue, J. -F.; Keiser, D. D.; Perez, E.; Robinson, A.; Wachs, D. M.; Woolstenhulme, N.; Hofman, G. L.; Kim, Y. -S.

doi:10.5516/NET.07.2014.706

Title: IRRADIATION PERFORMANCE OF U-Mo MONOLITHIC FUEL

Journal Article · Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Nuclear Engineering and Technology (NET)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.5516/NET.07.2014.706· OSTI ID:1136320

Meyer, M. K.; Gan, J.; Jue, J. -F.; Keiser, D. D.; Perez, E.; Robinson, A.; Wachs, D. M.; Woolstenhulme, N.; Hofman, G. L.; Kim, Y. -S.

High-performance research reactors require fuel that operates at high specific power to high fission density, but at relatively low temperatures. Research reactor fuels are designed for efficient heat rejection, and are composed of assemblies of thin-plates clad in aluminum alloy. The development of low-enriched fuels to replace high-enriched fuels for these reactors requires a substantially increased uranium density in the fuel to offset the decrease in enrichment. Very few fuel phases have been identified that have the required combination of very-high uranium density and stable fuel behavior at high burnup. UMo alloys represent the best known tradeoff in these properties. Testing of aluminum matrix U-Mo aluminum matrix dispersion fuel revealed a pattern of breakaway swelling behavior at intermediate burnup, related to the formation of a molybdenum stabilized high aluminum intermetallic phase that forms during irradiation. In the case of monolithic fuel, this issue was addressed by eliminating, as much as possible, the interfacial area between U-Mo and aluminum. Based on scoping irradiation test data, a fuel plate system composed of solid U-10Mo fuel meat, a zirconium diffusion barrier, and Al6061 cladding was selected for development. Developmental testing of this fuel system indicates that it meets core criteria for fuel qualification, including stable and predictable swelling behavior, mechanical integrity to high burnup, and geometric stability. In addition, the fuel exhibits robust behavior during power-cooling mismatch events under irradiation at high power.

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Research Organization:: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: DOE - NE

DOE Contract Number:: DE-AC07-05ID14517

OSTI ID:: 1136320

Report Number(s):: INL/JOU-14-31644

Journal Information:: Nuclear Engineering and Technology (NET), Vol. 46, Issue 2

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Advanced Postirradiation Characterization of Nuclear Fuels Using Pulsed Neutrons Vogel, Sven C.; Bourke, Mark A. M.; Craft, Aaron E. JOM, Vol. 72, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-019-03849-2	journal	November 2019
Microstructure characterization and phase field analysis of dendritic crystal growth of γ-U and BCC-Mo dendrite in U–33 at.% Mo fast reactor fuel Chakraborty, Sibasis; Choudhuri, Gargi; Somayajulu, Perepa Subramanya Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 33, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2017.425	journal	November 2017
Discontinuous Precipitation in U-10 wt.%Mo Alloy: Reaction Kinetics, Effect of Prior γ-UMo Microstructure, the Role of Grain-Boundary Misorientation, and the Effect of Ternary Alloying Addition Jana, Saumyadeep; Overman, Nicole; Devaraj, Arun JOM, Vol. 71, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-019-03588-4	journal	June 2019

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