Treatment techniques to prevent cracking of amorphous microspheres made by the internal gelation process

R. D. Hunt; F. C. Montgomery; J. L. Collins

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2010.08.007

Treatment techniques to prevent cracking of amorphous microspheres made by the internal gelation process

R. D. Hunt, F. C. Montgomery, J. L. Collins

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38 Scopus citations

Abstract

The internal gelation process has been used to make plutonium gel spheres and zirconium gel spheres with stabilized yttrium. However, attempts to convert these amorphous gel spheres into kernels have failed due to cracking during the subsequent heat treatments. The porosity of the amorphous microspheres is typically not sufficient to permit the gases that are formed during subsequent heat treatments to escape. The microspheres will crack when the internal pressure becomes too great. In this study, several treatment techniques were applied to zirconium microspheres stabilized with yttrium in an effort to reduce or eliminate cracking. A combination of water washes, a pressurized water treatment at 473 K for 3 h, and a Dowanol PM treatment was shown to eliminate the cracking problem with the zirconium microspheres, which were heated to 1438 K.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	160-164
Number of pages	5
Journal	Journal of Nuclear Materials
Volume	405
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2010.08.007
State	Published - Oct 15 2010

Funding

This effort was sponsored by the US Department of Energy through the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology’s Deep-Burn Development Project under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The work was performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory under the auspices of the Nuclear Science and Technology Division.

Funders	Funder number
Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology’s Deep-Burn Development Project	DE-AC05-00OR22725
U.S. Department of Energy

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abstract = "The internal gelation process has been used to make plutonium gel spheres and zirconium gel spheres with stabilized yttrium. However, attempts to convert these amorphous gel spheres into kernels have failed due to cracking during the subsequent heat treatments. The porosity of the amorphous microspheres is typically not sufficient to permit the gases that are formed during subsequent heat treatments to escape. The microspheres will crack when the internal pressure becomes too great. In this study, several treatment techniques were applied to zirconium microspheres stabilized with yttrium in an effort to reduce or eliminate cracking. A combination of water washes, a pressurized water treatment at 473 K for 3 h, and a Dowanol PM treatment was shown to eliminate the cracking problem with the zirconium microspheres, which were heated to 1438 K.",

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Treatment techniques to prevent cracking of amorphous microspheres made by the internal gelation process

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