α-U and ω-UZr₂ in neutron irradiated U-10Zr annular metallic fuel

To develop metallic fuel with ultra-high burnup of 30%-40%, an annular U-10Zr fuel with 55% smear density was fabricated through a casting route and irradiated at the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory. The annular fuel design also serves as a demonstration of the feasibility to replace the sodium bond with a helium bond to benefit the geological disposal of irradiated fuel, cut the cost of fuel fabrication, and boosts the overall metallic fuel economy. This paper reports the results from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) based post-irradiation examination of this fuel type irradiated to a burnup of 3.3% fissions per initial heavy metal atoms. The low burnup was planned for initial screening of this fuel design. After irradiation, the initial U-10Zr microstructure separated into an α-U annular region and an UZr_2+x center region with a nanoscale spinodal decomposed microstructure. Because of the large amount of interface areas created in this microstructure, the fission gas atoms and vacancies generated in the UZr_2+x phase are possibly pinned at the interface areas, leading to ~20 times smaller fission gas bubbles than those in the neighboring α-U. The large bubbles in α-U become connected and merged into large pores that provide fast paths for fission gas release into capsule plenum which prevents further swelling of fuel slug. The fuel slug center still has open space to accommodate further fuel swelling from solid fission products at higher burnup. Other neutron irradiation induced phase and microstructure change are also characterized and compared with traditional solid fuel designs.