Thermodynamic assessment of the oxygen rich U-Ce-O system

J. W. McMurray, S. Hirooka, T. Murakami, K. Suzuki, J. T. White, S. L. Voit, A. T. Nelson, B. W. Slone, T. M. Besmann, K. J. McClellan, M. Kato

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

A thermodynamic assessment of the U-Ce-O system was performed by combining the existing Calphad assessments of the U-O and Ce-O binaries. A compound energy formalism representation for the fluorite U1-yCeyO2±x and a partially ionic two-sublattice liquid model for U-Ce-O melt were developed to describe the ternary solutions. Oxygen potentials for U1-yCeyO2±x for 0.05, 0.20, 0.30, and 0.50 Ce metal fractions were measured from thermogravimetric analysis and used, along with other thermodynamic data reported in the literature, to optimize the adjustable parameters of the models for U1-yCeyO2±x and the U-Ce-O ternary liquid. In addition, the thermochemical behavior of U1-yCeyO2±x and U1-yPuyO2±x was compared in order to assess the suitability of using Ce as a surrogate for Pu in MOX fuel.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)588-600
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Nuclear Materials
Volume467
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2015
Externally publishedYes

Funding

The authors would like to thank Ryan Cooper and Yan Zhou of Oak Ridge National Laboratory for helpful comments. The authors would also like to acknowledge John Dunwoody and Darrin Byler for assistance with sample preparation at LANL. The work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy Fuel Cycle Technology Program .

Keywords

  • Calphad
  • Cerium
  • Compound energy formalism
  • Oxygen
  • Oxygen potential
  • Phase equilibria
  • UO
  • Uranium

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Thermodynamic assessment of the oxygen rich U-Ce-O system'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this