Abstract
Graphite is the moderator material of several Generation IV nuclear reactor concepts, as well as the British Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR). Porosity can heavily influence the material properties, mechanical irradiation response, and neutron induced shrinkage or swelling of nuclear-grade graphite. Due to the sub-micron size of several types of pores found in graphite, only a high-resolution imaging technique such as electron tomography are capable of visualizing these features in three dimensions. In this research, we used electron tomography to characterize as-received and neutron irradiated samples of IG-110 nuclear-grade graphite to show for the first time the 3D structure of both native and irradiation-induced nano-cracks. This technique also reveals unique characteristics of graphite such as the structure that surrounds pores and could be used to inform molecular dynamic simulations of irradiated graphite and experimental techniques such as gas-absorption. This research also shows the utility of this technique for the study of other nuclear porous carbon-based materials.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 152649 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 545 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2021 |
Funding
This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ). This work was supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07- 051D14517 as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities experiment. A portion of this research used the resources of the Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis Laboratory (LAMDA), a DOE Office of Science research facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle under contract DE-AC05–00OR22725.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| US Department of Energy | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | DE-AC07- 051D14517 |
| Office of Nuclear Energy | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| UT-Battelle | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
Keywords
- Electron microscopy
- Electron tomography
- Graphite
- Nuclear materials
- Structural materials