Non-destructive analysis of swelling in the EMPIrE fuel test

被引：0

作者：

Hanson, William A. ^{[1
]}

Robinson, Adam B. ^{[1
]}

Lybeck, Nancy J. ^{[1
]}

Nielsen, Joseph W. ^{[1
]}

Ye, Bei ^{[2
]}

Mei, Zhi-Gang ^{[2
]}

Keiser, Dennis D. ^{[1
]}

Jamison, Laura M. ^{[2
]}

Hofman, Gerard L. ^{[2
]}

Yacout, Abdellatif M. ^{[2
]}

Leenaers, Ann ^{[3
]}

Stepnik, Bertrand ^{[4
]}

Glagolenko, Irina Y. ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Idaho National Laboratory, P. O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls,ID,83415-6188, United States

[2] Chemical and Fuel Cycle Technologies division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave., Lemont,IL,60439, United States

[3] SCK CEN, Nuclear Material Science Institute, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium

[4] Framatome (CERCA Division), SPL, ZI Les Bérauds, 54 avenue de la déportation, BP 1114, Romans-sur-Isère,26104, France

来源：

Journal of Nuclear Materials | 2022年 / 564卷

关键词：

Swelling - Research reactors - Uranium - Uranium alloys - Binary alloys - Dispersions;

D O I：

暂无

中图分类号：

学科分类号：

摘要：

The European Mini-Plate Irradiation Experiment (EMPIrE) was designed to support the development and testing of a coated uranium-molybdenum (U-Mo) dispersion fuel for the conversion of select high-performance research reactors (HPRRs) to utilize low-enriched uranium (LEU). To aid in the development of the coated fuel form, the EMPIrE test included several plate designs and irradiated them in the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at a high meat power density (∼21 kW/cm3) and to high fuel particle fission densities (∼6.4 × 1021 fissions/cm3). These conditions mimic the bounding conditions of the BR-2 reactor in Belgium, where a concurrent irradiation experiment was performed, and exceed those previously explored in dispersion U-Mo fuel plates. A local fuel swelling analysis, as determined through high-fidelity, post-irradiation mini-plate profilometry, was used along with statistical methods to non-destructively evaluate the overall performance and separate the effects of convoluted fabrication variables. While some effects observed with this non-destructive analysis were subtle, others had more significant, and possibly competing, effects on the fuel swelling behavior. These observations will be examined further with destructive examinations to more fully assess them as the fuel design is developed and qualified. © 2022

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