TY - JOUR
T1 - Non-destructive analysis of swelling in the EMPIrE fuel test
AU - Hanson, William A.
AU - Robinson, Adam B.
AU - Lybeck, Nancy J.
AU - Nielsen, Joseph W.
AU - Ye, Bei
AU - Mei, Zhi Gang
AU - Keiser, Dennis D.
AU - Jamison, Laura M.
AU - Hofman, Gerard L.
AU - Yacout, Abdellatif M.
AU - Leenaers, Ann
AU - Stepnik, Bertrand
AU - Glagolenko, Irina Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-05ID14517. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. The authors would like to acknowledge the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute for providing the U-7Mo powder for this experiment, S. Bhattacharya's efforts in applying the ALD coating, and Y. S. Kim's effort in the EMPIrE test design. The authors would like to thank Casey Jesse for his efforts in providing details from the EMPIrE thermal as-run models and Xavière Iltis for providing ZrN coating thickness measurements for select powder batches. The authors would also like to acknowledge the staff, engineers, and operators of the INL Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF) for their efforts during the post-irradiation examinations and specifically G. C. Papaioannou and B. K. Allen for their work on the BONA4INL measurement bench. Argonne National Laboratory's work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357.
Funding Information:
This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy , under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-05ID14517 . Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. The authors would like to acknowledge the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute for providing the U-7Mo powder for this experiment, S. Bhattacharya's efforts in applying the ALD coating, and Y. S. Kim's effort in the EMPIrE test design. The authors would like to thank Casey Jesse for his efforts in providing details from the EMPIrE thermal as-run models and Xavière Iltis for providing ZrN coating thickness measurements for select powder batches. The authors would also like to acknowledge the staff, engineers, and operators of the INL Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF) for their efforts during the post-irradiation examinations and specifically G. C. Papaioannou and B. K. Allen for their work on the BONA4INL measurement bench. Argonne National Laboratory's work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy , Office of Science, under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - The European Mini-Plate Irradiation Experiment (EMPIrE) was designed to support the development and testing of a coated uranium-molybdenum (U-Mo) dispersion fuel for the conversion of select high-performance research reactors (HPRRs) to utilize low-enriched uranium (LEU). To aid in the development of the coated fuel form, the EMPIrE test included several plate designs and irradiated them in the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at a high meat power density (∼21 kW/cm3) and to high fuel particle fission densities (∼6.4 × 1021 fissions/cm3). These conditions mimic the bounding conditions of the BR-2 reactor in Belgium, where a concurrent irradiation experiment was performed, and exceed those previously explored in dispersion U-Mo fuel plates. A local fuel swelling analysis, as determined through high-fidelity, post-irradiation mini-plate profilometry, was used along with statistical methods to non-destructively evaluate the overall performance and separate the effects of convoluted fabrication variables. While some effects observed with this non-destructive analysis were subtle, others had more significant, and possibly competing, effects on the fuel swelling behavior. These observations will be examined further with destructive examinations to more fully assess them as the fuel design is developed and qualified.
AB - The European Mini-Plate Irradiation Experiment (EMPIrE) was designed to support the development and testing of a coated uranium-molybdenum (U-Mo) dispersion fuel for the conversion of select high-performance research reactors (HPRRs) to utilize low-enriched uranium (LEU). To aid in the development of the coated fuel form, the EMPIrE test included several plate designs and irradiated them in the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at a high meat power density (∼21 kW/cm3) and to high fuel particle fission densities (∼6.4 × 1021 fissions/cm3). These conditions mimic the bounding conditions of the BR-2 reactor in Belgium, where a concurrent irradiation experiment was performed, and exceed those previously explored in dispersion U-Mo fuel plates. A local fuel swelling analysis, as determined through high-fidelity, post-irradiation mini-plate profilometry, was used along with statistical methods to non-destructively evaluate the overall performance and separate the effects of convoluted fabrication variables. While some effects observed with this non-destructive analysis were subtle, others had more significant, and possibly competing, effects on the fuel swelling behavior. These observations will be examined further with destructive examinations to more fully assess them as the fuel design is developed and qualified.
KW - Fuel swelling
KW - Low-enriched uranium
KW - Non-destructive examination
KW - Post-irradiation examination
KW - Research reactor fuel
KW - U-Mo dispersion fuel
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85127989617
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/492e46f6-6ee7-3916-a4f7-708ed3184474/
U2 - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.153683
DO - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.153683
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85127989617
SN - 0022-3115
VL - 564
JO - Journal of Nuclear Materials
JF - Journal of Nuclear Materials
M1 - 153683
ER -