UN-UB2 Composite fuel material; improved water tolerance with integral burnable absorber

As part of a scoping study to investigate the initial feasibility of UN-UB2 composites, pellets of 5, 25 and 50% UB2 within UN were produced via Spark Plasma Sintering alongside a high density UN material. The pellets were seen to have a well-formed and dense microstructure which did not appear to c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of nuclear materials Vol. 559; p. 1
Main Authors Turner, J., Buckley, J., Worth, R.N., Salata-Barnett, M., Schmidt, M.J.J., Abram, T.J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.02.2022
Elsevier BV
Subjects
Boride
Composite materials
Density
Fuel
High density fuels
Microstructure
Nitride
Nuclear
Oxidation
Oxidation rate
Pellets
Plasma sintering
Sintering (powder metallurgy)
Spark plasma sintering
Steam
Uranium
Uranium
Nitride
Nuclear
Boride
High density fuels
Fuel
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Summary:As part of a scoping study to investigate the initial feasibility of UN-UB2 composites, pellets of 5, 25 and 50% UB2 within UN were produced via Spark Plasma Sintering alongside a high density UN material. The pellets were seen to have a well-formed and dense microstructure which did not appear to change after annealing for 24 hours at 1273 K, which consisted of UN, UB2 and a UBN phase, with an additional UB0.1N0.9 phase suggested via EBSD. Steam exposure in an STA demonstrated that an increase in reaction onset temperature of approximately 150 K can be achieved via the addition of 25% UB2, and an increase of 120 K in onset temperature was evident in pellets containing only 5% UB2. High density UN was tested alongside these composites and behaved similarly, but microstructural examination of composites post-oxidation suggest that the oxidation rate is retarded in porous regions in addition to highly dense regions.
ISSN:0022-3115
1873-4820
DOI:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153471