| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2021 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Composite Materials for Nuclear Applications
|
| Presentation Title |
Development of UN/UO2 Composite Fuels for LWR Applications |
| Author(s) |
Peng Xu, Lingfeng He, Brian Jaques, Kumar Sridharan, Darryl Butt |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Peng Xu |
| Abstract Scope |
UN is a promising fuel form with a higher thermal conductivity and density than conventional UO2 that is widely used as the light water reactor (LWR) fuel. The main drawback of UN is inadequate water corrosion resistance as UN reacts with coolant water at normal operating conditions much faster than UO2, resulting in higher contamination of the coolant and increased dose rate for onsite workers. To mitigate the corrosion issue for UN, a natural step forward is to form a UN composite with a uranium bearing phase that is corrosion resistant. In this study, the UN/UO2 composites of various compositions were fabricated and tested for corrosion resistance. The corrosion behavior and mechanisms will be discussed. The microstructure of the composites was characterized using advanced electron microscopy such as SEM and TEM. Selected composites were also irradiated using 2MeV proton beam, and the radiation induced phase and defect evolutions were characterized. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Ceramics, Composites, Nuclear Materials |