In-Pile Experiment of a New Hafnium Aluminide Composite Material to Enable Fast Neutron Testing in the Advanced Test Reactor

Conference · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:984534

Guillen, Donna Post; Porter, Douglas L; Parry, James R; Ban, Heng

A new hafnium aluminide composite material is being developed as a key component in a Boosted Fast Flux Loop (BFFL) system designed to provide fast neutron flux test capability in the Advanced Test Reactor. An absorber block comprised of hafnium aluminide (Al3Hf) particles (~23% by volume) dispersed in an aluminum matrix can absorb thermal neutrons and transfer heat from the experiment to pressurized water cooling channels. However, the thermophysical properties, such as thermal conductivity, of this material and the effect of irradiation are not known. This paper describes the design of an in-pile experiment to obtain such data to enable design and optimization of the BFFL neutron filter.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE - NE
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 984534
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-10-17879; TRN: US1005937
• Resource Relation: Conference: ICAPP'10,San Diego, CA,06/13/2010,02/17/2010
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
ALUMINIUM
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
DESIGN
FAST NEUTRONS
HAFNIUM
IRRADIATION
NEUTRONS
OPTIMIZATION
TEST REACTORS
TESTING
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
THERMAL NEUTRONS
WATER
irradiation experiment
fast neutron flux
neutron