An evaluation of tri-valent oxide (Cr2O3) as a grain enlarging dopant for UO2 nuclear fuels fabricated under reducing environment

Chinthaka M. Silva; Rodney D. Hunt; Kiel S. Holliday

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153053

An evaluation of tri-valent oxide (Cr₂O₃) as a grain enlarging dopant for UO₂ nuclear fuels fabricated under reducing environment

Chinthaka M. Silva, Rodney D. Hunt, Kiel S. Holliday

Fuel Cycle Chemical Technology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

A study was performed to evaluate the microstructure and crystallography of nominally 500–2000 Cr₂O₃-doped UO₂ fabricated in a temperature range of 1150–1750°C under reducing experimental conditions. An increase in grain size of the samples was observed with the increase in heat treating temperature as expected. For a given sintering temperature (1700–1750°C), an increase in the grain size was also observed with the increase in Cr₂O₃ concentration up to a value of ~1000–1200 wppm. A decrease in fission gas release as a function of grain size was estimated for the Cr₂O₃-doped UO₂ samples assuming specified post-irradiation annealing conditions. A nearly linear decrease was obtained in the lattice parameter of the Cr₂O₃-doped UO₂ fcc phase with the increase in Cr₂O₃ concentration, especially up to a nominal value of 1000 wppm. The lattice parameter decrease was also persistent with the increase in the average grain size as a result of addition of Cr₂O₃ into the UO₂ lattice. An increase in the crystallite size and a decrease in the microstrain of the fcc phase were observed with the increase in the average grain size of the samples, indicating a higher crystallinity of the Cr₂O₃-doped samples than that of the undoped UO₂ sample.

Original language	English
Article number	153053
Journal	Journal of Nuclear Materials
Volume	553
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153053
State	Published - Sep 2021

Funding

The funding for this research was provided by the Advanced Fuels Campaign (AFC) of the US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE), and the experimental work was performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory . This work was also performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) under Contract No. DE-AC52–07NA27344. Authors would like to extend the gratitude to Dr. Andrew Nelson for his support in the research project and the ORNL staff, especially to, Chris Hobbs, Bryan Eckart, Alicia Raftery, Rachel Seibert, Becky Johnson, and Kelly King for their support in the completion of this work and the manuscript.

Keywords

CrO-doped UO
Crystallite size
Doping UO
Lattice parameter
Microstrain
Nuclear fuel

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153053

Cite this

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title = "An evaluation of tri-valent oxide (Cr2O3) as a grain enlarging dopant for UO2 nuclear fuels fabricated under reducing environment",

abstract = "A study was performed to evaluate the microstructure and crystallography of nominally 500–2000 Cr2O3-doped UO2 fabricated in a temperature range of 1150–1750°C under reducing experimental conditions. An increase in grain size of the samples was observed with the increase in heat treating temperature as expected. For a given sintering temperature (1700–1750°C), an increase in the grain size was also observed with the increase in Cr2O3 concentration up to a value of ~1000–1200 wppm. A decrease in fission gas release as a function of grain size was estimated for the Cr2O3-doped UO2 samples assuming specified post-irradiation annealing conditions. A nearly linear decrease was obtained in the lattice parameter of the Cr2O3-doped UO2 fcc phase with the increase in Cr2O3 concentration, especially up to a nominal value of 1000 wppm. The lattice parameter decrease was also persistent with the increase in the average grain size as a result of addition of Cr2O3 into the UO2 lattice. An increase in the crystallite size and a decrease in the microstrain of the fcc phase were observed with the increase in the average grain size of the samples, indicating a higher crystallinity of the Cr2O3-doped samples than that of the undoped UO2 sample.",

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