About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Metallic Fuels - Design, Fabrication, and Characterization
|
| Presentation Title |
U-Zr Alloy Properties Review and Applicability to Lightbridge Corporation Fuel Performance Activities |
| Author(s) |
Kyle Paaren, Raymond Wang, Geoffrey Beausoleil, Scott Holcombe |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Kyle Paaren |
| Abstract Scope |
The legacy empirical equations within literature and mechanistic model development in fuel performance codes are based on the U-10Zr alloy. The same is true for the Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) measurements utilized in benchmarking and model verification and validation (V&V) activities. For fuel systems that deviate from the U-10Zr composition and a-phase U-Zr, extrapolation of existing models shall occur. However, the adequacy breaks down further when the phase and microstructure significantly change, such as with Lightbridge Corporation’s (LBC) UZr2 fuel matrix. With the combination of fresh fuel characterization and PIE measurements of LBC’s fuel kernel, proper V&V may occur within thermal-mechanical codes. Within this work, simulations over LBC’s fabrication process and fuel irradiation performance are predicted using the legacy U-Pu-Zr material models and validated against the specific UZr2 d-phase counterpart. Differences between empirical and mechanistic modeling approaches are discussed and compared. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Nuclear Materials, Other, Computational Materials Science & Engineering |