Abstract
In collaboration with industry, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is investigating uranium silicide for use in future light water reactor fuels as a more accident resistant alternative to uranium oxide base fuels. This work is focused on producing uranium silicide (U3Si2) pellets by conventional powder metallurgy with a density greater than 94% of the theoretical density of U3Si2. This work has produced a process to consistently fabricate pellets with the desired density. High phase purity U3Si2 has been successfully produced. Milling of the U3Si2 has been optimized. Results are presented from sintering studies and microstructural examinations. The density produced by the optimized process is 11.57 g/cm3 or 94.7% theoretical density. The optimized process will be used to produce more samples for physical property characterization and an upcoming irradiation in the Advanced Test Reactor.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 990-993 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Transactions of the American Nuclear Society |
| Volume | 110 |
| State | Published - 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 2014 Annual Meeting on Transactions of the American Nuclear Society and Embedded Topical Meeting: Nuclear Fuels and Structural Materials for the Next Generation Nuclear Reactors, NSFM 2014 - Reno, NV, United States Duration: Jun 15 2014 → Jun 19 2014 |