No abstract

U-silicide or U-nitride coated U-Mo particle dispersion fuel in Al (U-Mo/Al) was in-pile tested to examine the effectiveness of the coating as a diffusion barrier between the U-7Mo fuel kernels and Al matrix. This paper reports the PIE data and analyses focusing on the effectiveness of the coating in terms of interaction layer (IL) growth and general fuel performance. The U-silicide coating showed considerable success, but it also provided evidence for additional improvement for coating process. The U-nitride coated specimen showed largely inefficient results in reducing IL growth. From the test, important observations were also made that can be utilized to improve U-Mo/Al fuel performance. The heating process for coating turned out to be beneficial to suppress fuel swelling. The use of larger fuel particles confirmed favorable effects on fuel performance.

No abstract

a b s t r a c tFission-induced swelling of UeMo/Al dispersion fuel meat was measured using microscopy images obtained from post-irradiation examination. The data of reduced-size plate-type test samples and rodtype test samples were employed for this work. A model to predict the meat swelling of UeMo/Al dispersion fuel was developed. This model is composed of several submodels including a model for interaction layer (IL) growth between UeMo and Al matrix, a model for IL thickness to IL volume conversion, a correlation for the fission-induced swelling of UeMo alloy particles, a correlation for the fission-induced swelling of IL, and models of UeMo and Al consumption by IL growth. The model was validated using full-size plate data that were not included in the model development.

No abstract