Irradiation effects on thermal properties of LWR hydride fuel

Three hydride mini-fuel rods were fabricated and irradiated at the MIT nuclear reactor with a maximum burnup of 0.31% FIMA or ∼5 MWd/kgU equivalent oxide fuel burnup. Fuel rods consisted of uranium-zirconium hydride (U (30 wt%)ZrH1.6) pellets clad inside a LWR Zircaloy-2 tubing. The gap between the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of nuclear materials Vol. 486; no. C; pp. 381 - 390
Main Authors Terrani, Kurt, Balooch, Mehdi, Carpenter, David, Kohse, Gordon, Keiser, Dennis, Meyer, Mitchell, Olander, Donald
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.04.2017
Elsevier BV
Elsevier
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Summary:Three hydride mini-fuel rods were fabricated and irradiated at the MIT nuclear reactor with a maximum burnup of 0.31% FIMA or ∼5 MWd/kgU equivalent oxide fuel burnup. Fuel rods consisted of uranium-zirconium hydride (U (30 wt%)ZrH1.6) pellets clad inside a LWR Zircaloy-2 tubing. The gap between the fuel and the cladding was filled with lead-bismuth eutectic alloy to eliminate the gas gap and the large temperature drop across it. Each mini-fuel rod was instrumented with two thermocouples with tips that are axially located halfway through the fuel centerline and cladding surface. In-pile temperature measurements enabled calculation of thermal conductivity in this fuel as a function of temperature and burnup. In-pile thermal conductivity at the beginning of test agreed well with out-of-pile measurements on unirradiated fuel and decreased rapidly with burnup.
Bibliography:USDOE
ISSN:0022-3115
1873-4820
DOI:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2017.01.030