About this Abstract |
Meeting |
2024 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
Symposium
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Ceramics and Ceramic-based Composites for Nuclear Fission Applications
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Presentation Title |
Thermophysical Properties of Uranium Nitride-metal Composite Fuels |
Author(s) |
Joseph Schaeperkoetter, Scarlett Widgeon Paisner, Timothy Coons, Darrin Byler, Joshua White, Erofili Kardoulaki, Jhonathan Rosales, Kenneth McClellan |
On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Joseph Schaeperkoetter |
Abstract Scope |
In a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) rocket engine, a fission reactor is used to generate extremely high temperatures (~ 3000 K), which significantly improves propellant efficiency compared to chemical rockets and thus could be an enabling technology for crewed missions to Mars. Materials inside the reactor must be able to withstand the high temperatures and an important area of development is nuclear fuels with high temperature thermal properties for safe and efficient reactor operation. One such fuel considered for NTP is a ceramic-metal composite (cermet) with uranium nitride (UN) embedded in a metal matrix. This talk will focus on how the thermophysical properties of a UN cermet fuel are improved by inclusion in a metal matrix, as is predicted by the rule of mixtures approximation. Importantly, we will demonstrate increases in thermal conductivity compared to UN at temperatures up to 1800 °C. |
Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, High-Temperature Materials, Ceramics |