Effectiveness of a dopant in U-Zr metallic fuel to prevent lanthanide migration
- Argonne National Laboratory 9700 S. Cass Ave, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)
The advanced fast reactor concepts to achieve ultra-high burnup (about 50%) without requiring refueling by way of using metallic alloy fuel have gained interest. Fission product lanthanide accumulation at high burnup is substantial and its migration to cladding and reaction with cladding is a potential life-limiting phenomenon. As a means to solve this problem, adding an element that forms stable compounds with lanthanides to immobilize them has been proposed. The theoretical assessment shows that indium, thallium, gallium, and antimony are good candidates. Except for Sb, because these elements are low-melting temperature elements, liquid metal embrittlement of cladding is a concern if large sized agglomerates exist contacting the cladding. Alloy characterization of as-fabricated samples was performed to examine the effectiveness of the dopant addition method using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Although preliminary, the present results showed that indium is a better dopant to immobilize lanthanides.
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22264162
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: GLOBAL 2013: International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference - Nuclear Energy at a Crossroads, Salt Lake City, UT (United States), 29 Sep - 3 Oct 2013; Other Information: Country of input: France; 2 refs.; Related Information: In: Proceedings of GLOBAL 2013: International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference - Nuclear Energy at a Crossroads| 1633 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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