Assessing High Burnup U-19Pu-10Zr Fuel Performance against Historical and Modeled Behavior
Advancing the deployment of sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) requires thorough testing of metallic fuel pins under accident conditions to establish safe operational limits of high burnup fuel. To conduct transient testing, a comprehensive understanding of steady-state fuel behavior obtained through both experimental characterization and accurate predictive capabilities is needed. This study comparatively assesses the steady-state […]
Understanding Oxide-Metal Interactions during Hot Isostatic Pressing to Diffusion Bond Aluminum Alloy 6061 Plates
The interaction of Mg and Al2O3 during diffusion bonding of aluminum 6061 plates are studied using thermochemical simulation software to understand how reactions between Mg and Al2O3 may change with temperature and system pressure parameters. The results show that reactions between Mg and Al2O3 to produce either MgO + Al or MgAl2O4 + Al are […]
Design and Development of Novel Equiatomic Refractory Multi Principal elemental Alloys Based on MoNbTi System for Use in Irradiation Environments
Multi Principal Elemental Alloys (MPEA) have emerged as promising materials for next-generation nuclear reactors due to their exceptional irradiation resistance. Eight equiatomic MPEA based on the MoNbTi system, comprising of elements with low thermal neutron absorption cross-sections were explored using a combined approach employing empirical parameter estimations, and CALPHAD simulations by which the phases and […]
Post-irradiation examination of UN-Mo-W fuels for space nuclear propulsion
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s return to space nuclear propulsion stems from the need for a more efficient method of space travel. Nuclear thermal propulsion systems have been shown to be two times more efficient than chemical propulsion. NASA’s Sirius program was created to fabricate and test fuels for space nuclear propulsion, specifically to […]
Cracking in first ramp to power of standard versus high thermal conductivity UO2 pellets via internal nuclear heating
Advanced fuel designs that incorporate thinner fuel UO2 pellets interspaced by high thermal conductivity inserts have been proposed, with the primary goals of reducing peak centerline temperatures and temperature gradients across fuel pellets and enhancing heat transfer from the fuel to the coolant. An initial series of experiments has been performed on this design, including […]
Experiment Assembly and Testing in Hot Cell in Support of Advanced Fuels Irradiation Testing
Follow-on experimentation of irradiated nuclear fuel is critical to understanding fuel behavior at different stages of the fuel lifecycle. Transient experiments using fuel with high burnup can enlarge understanding of fuel fragmentation, relocation and dispersal under various reactor accident situations. Assembling experiments with such fuel requires remote operations.
Dry In-Pile Fracture Test (DRIFT) for Separate-Effects Validation of Ceramic Fuel Fracture Models
Fracture is an important component of nuclear fuel behavior, and significant efforts have been invested into developing fuel performance models that are capable of accurately representing fracture. Usable data on the process of fracture propagation in nuclear fuel under realistic service conditions are very limited. To address this need, a series of separate-effects experiments were […]