Computational Design of Advanced Nuclear Fuels

Technical Report · Tue Jun 03 00:00:00 EDT 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1154725· OSTI ID:1154725

Savrasov, Sergey ^[1]; Kotliar, Gabriel ^[2]; Haule, Kristjan ^[2]

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1. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
2. Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)

The objective of the project was to develop a method for theoretical understanding of nuclear fuel materials whose physical and thermophysical properties can be predicted from first principles using a novel dynamical mean field method for electronic structure calculations. We concentrated our study on uranium, plutonium, their oxides, nitrides, carbides, as well as some rare earth materials whose 4f eletrons provide a simplified framework for understanding complex behavior of the f electrons. We addressed the issues connected to the electronic structure, lattice instabilities, phonon and magnon dynamics as well as thermal conductivity. This allowed us to evaluate characteristics of advanced nuclear fuel systems using computer based simulations and avoid costly experiments.

• Research Organization: Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). Nuclear Energy University Programs (NEUP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1154725
• Report Number(s): DOE/NEUP-09-782; TRN: US1500344
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
OXIDES
PLUTONIUM
URANIUM
RARE EARTHS
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
CARBIDES
DESIGN
NITRIDES
PHONONS
MEAN-FIELD THEORY
CRYSTAL LATTICES
MAGNONS
DYNAMICS
INSTABILITY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
URANIUM COMPOUNDS
PLUTONIUM COMPOUNDS
PROGRESS REPORT