About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Special Topics in Nuclear Materials: Reproducibility and Uncertainty; Hydrogen Effects; Space and Microreactor Systems
|
| Presentation Title |
Characterization of Zirconiumhydride Decomposition by Neutron Diffraction and Modeling |
| Author(s) |
Sven C. Vogel, Mark Daymond, Caitlin Kohnert, Fei Long, Christopher Matthews, William D. Neilson, Mary K. O'Brien |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Sven C. Vogel |
| Abstract Scope |
Water moderators, which are used in current large-scale nuclear power plants, are replaced by solid hydride materials in special purpose nuclear reactors such as microreactors or in space applications. Moderators are needed in reactors designed for defense and space applications where the use of highly enriched uranium is discouraged. Redistribution of hydrogen or even decomposition of these materials as a function of temperature and atmosphere are not sufficiently understood to design and ultimately license such reactors. Here, we present results of high temperature neutron diffraction experiments observing the decomposition of hydrides of pure Zr, Zr-2.5Nb, Zircaloy-2, and Zircaloy-4. The kinetics can be explained by a multiphysics simulation of hydrogen evolution in metal hydrides, the so-called SWIFT model. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Characterization, Nuclear Materials, Phase Transformations |