SiC/SiC composites through transient eutectic-phase route for fusion applications

Silicon Carbide and Silicon Carbide Composites for Fusion Reactor Application

“…Nuclear-grade SiC composites can be fabricated by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) process 4) or Nano-powder Infiltration and Transient Eutectic-phase (NITE) process 5) using high purity SiC fibers such as Hi-Nicalon-S or Tyranno SA. Both processes can form highly crystalline SiC structure with limited impurity, which is a key requirement for material application in neutron irradiation environment.…”

The Production Process, Thermophysical Properties, and Quality Assurance Process for the Provision of Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuels: ORNL Rodlets for the ATR ATF-1 Experiment

“…The FCM fuel pellet is fabricated using a liquid phase sintering process known as the NITE process [18,19] where the SiC matrix is formed around the TRISO particles. The starting material consists of SiC nanopowder blended with small quantities of oxide additives (Y 2 O 3 and Al 2 O 3 mixtures used as sintering aides) and TRISO particles that undergoes hot pressing.…”

Assessment of Silicon Carbide Composites for Advanced Salt-Cooled Reactors

“…Processing routes presently available for industrial production of SiC composites are chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) [10], nanoinfiltration and transient eutectic-phase process (NITE) [11][12][13], melt-infiltration (MI, or occasionally termed reaction sintering, RS, or liquid silicon infiltration, LSI) [14], and polymerimpregnation and pyrolysis (PIP) [15]. Typical attributes for these processing routes are compared in Table 2.…”

“…The development and fundamental characterization of the early-grade NITE SiC/SiC are summarized elsewhere [11,13,21]. NITE SiC/SiC is anticipated to be a potential alternative to CVI SiC/SiC, because the matrix consists mostly of highly crystallized beta-phase SiC.…”