Design and fabrication of UN composites: From first principles to pellet production

Preparation of Chromium doped uranium nitride via Sol-Gel and Carbothermic reduction

“…Similar results were previously found by Herman et al [14] . However, this behavior is unexpected as the phase is supposed to be thermodynamically stable up to 1873 K, according to Mishchenko et al [13] . This suggests that the phase was never formed in the synthesized materials or that it was not stable during reaction.…”

“…This phase is present in an orthorhombic crystal structure and belongs to the space group Immm [19] . Theoretical calculations made by Mishchenko et al [13] have shown that the solubility of CrN in UN crystal is thermodynamically favorable and expected.…”

“…The general concept is to mix the uranium nitride with a material that can protect it if the fuel comes into contact with air or water. Oxide scale forming elements such as aluminum and chromium could provide sufficient protection to slow down the oxidation of UN in the case of an accident [13] . A screening study on possible dopants for UN showed that chromium seems to increase the survivability of UN pellets in boiling water [14] .…”