Abstract
Zirconium (Zr) is added to uranium (U) to improve the performance of metallic fuel for fast reactor applications. This study employs transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) to investigate nanoscale clustering of U and Zr, as well as segregation of fission products (FPs), in annular U-10Zr (in weight) metallic fuel irradiated at the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). The results reveal variations in the shape, size, and chemical composition of clusters at different radial locations within the irradiated fuel cross-section. Zr-rich clusters exhibit higher concentration of FPs compared to U-rich clusters, potentially due to the co-precipitation of Zr and FPs in the fuel matrix during cooling at the end-of-life. This work complements the study of fuel constituents and fission product distribution across multiple length scales in irradiated U-10Zr metallic fuel.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 156150 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 617 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2025 |
Funding
This research made use of Idaho National Laboratory's High Performance Computing systems located at the Collaborative Computing Center and supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Science User Facilities under Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517. The work is supported by INL LDRD project (25A1090-192FP). Support from the IMCL sample preparation team for preparation of specimen is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge the irradiation experiments by DOE Advanced Fuel Campaign.
Keywords
- Atom probe tomography
- Fission products
- Metallic fuel
- Transmission electron microscopy
- U-10Zr