Development of Lightweight Structural Materials with Improved Properties for Fission Batteries
The notion of a “fission battery” conveys a vision focused on realizing very simple “plug-and-play” nuclear systems that can be integrated into a variety of applications requiring affordable, reliable energy in the form of electricity and/or heat and function without operations and maintenance staff. Fission batteries require lightweight structural materials to increase their mobility, and […]
Development of Lightweight Structural Materials with Improved Properties for Fission Batteries
Fission batteries require lightweight structural materials that demonstrate structural resilience when subjected to repeated shutdown, transportation, startup cycles, and certain external conditions, including rare events such as seismic vibrations and tsunamis. The objectives of this project are (1) to produce lightweight structural materials whose strength-to-weight ratios and fatigue resistance exceed those of current widely used […]
In-Cell Thermal Creep Frame Capability: Out-of-Cell Construction and Subsized Sample Testing
This report describes the activities related to the construction of an in-cell thermal creep test facility for small-scale specimens in the irradiation-assisted stress-corrosion cracking (IASCC) hotcell located at the Fuels and Applied Science Building (FASB) at INL. The whole project includes three stages: (i) conceptual design; (ii) out-of-cell demonstration tests; and (iii) in-cell demonstration testing. […]
Characterization of Alloy 709 Commercial Heats
The creep-resistant austenitic stainless steel Alloy 709 (Fe-20Cr-25Ni (wt%) based steel) is being investigated as a candidate structural material for the next generation of advanced reactors. Unlike conventional solid solution strengthened austenitic stainless steels, Alloy 709 develops a variety of precipitates during aging at different temperatures and times. In this study, precipitate evolution during short-term […]
INL Analysis and Recommendations to Framatome FMEA and PIRT for UZr2 Fuel
A fuel design being proposed by Framatome includes an annular fuel rod that consists of a 50 wt.% Zr uranium-zirconium (U-50Zr) alloy enriched to less than 20% U235 with an external zircaloy cladding while maintaining other aspects of the typical LWR fuel rod design. The rods are in a rectangular array supported and positioned by […]