Abstract
An overview of postirradiation examination results for uranium nitride kernels and uranium nitride coated particles irradiated in the High Flux Isotope Reactor are presented. This is the first postirradiation examination of the MiniFuel irradiation vehicle that was recently developed to rapidly accumulate burnup during separate effects irradiation testing. In general, the burnup and fuel temperatures measured postirradiation were consistent with the design calculations. The burnup measured by mass spectrometry ranged from 5.9 to 10 MWd/kgU and was achieved after only 68 effective full-power days of irradiation. The dilatometric evaluation of passive silicon carbide thermometry indicated that the fuel was irradiated at temperatures ranging from 410 to 460 °C. Because the irradiation temperatures and burnup were low, the UN kernels showed minimal fission gas release that was within the range of the expected recoil (athermal) release. While it is possible to measure fuel swelling using x-ray computed tomography, the observed swelling was too small to quantify in this case. Extensive microstructural characterization of the irradiated fuel was performed, and no significant irradiation induced changes were observed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 152696 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 544 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2021 |
Funding
Several ORNL staff members contributed to the collection of the data discussed in this work. Mass spectrometry on the fuel was performed by Tamara Keever and Benjamin Roach. The hot-cell staff at the Irradiated Fuel Examination Laboratory, including Zachary Burns, Tyson Jordan, Darren Skitt and Chuck Baldwin, were instrumental in data collection. Special recognition for the support of this experiment also goes to Annabelle Le Coq, Kory Linton, Grant Helmreich and Alicia Raftery. Andrew Nelson and Tyler Gerczak provided valuable comments on the manuscript. The work was supported by the Advanced Fuels Campaign of the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. A portion of this research used resources at HFIR, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by ORNL. Notice: 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 ). Several ORNL staff members contributed to the collection of the data discussed in this work. Mass spectrometry on the fuel was performed by Tamara Keever and Benjamin Roach. The hot-cell staff at the Irradiated Fuel Examination Laboratory, including Zachary Burns, Tyson Jordan, Darren Skitt and Chuck Baldwin, were instrumental in data collection. Special recognition for the support of this experiment also goes to Annabelle Le Coq, Kory Linton, Grant Helmreich and Alicia Raftery. Andrew Nelson and Tyler Gerczak provided valuable comments on the manuscript. The work was supported by the Advanced Fuels Campaign of the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. A portion of this research used resources at HFIR, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by ORNL.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DOE Office of Nuclear Energy | |
| US Department of Energy | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Office of Science | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
Keywords
- Irradiation testing
- Postirradiation examination
- Separate effects
- TRISO
- Uranium nitride