Thermal conductivity of fresh and irradiated U-Mo fuels

Tanja K. Huber, Harald Breitkreutz, Douglas E. Burkes, Amanda J. Casella, Andrew M. Casella, Stefan Elgeti, Christian Reiter, Adam B. Robinson, Frances N. Smith, Daniel M. Wachs, Winfried Petry

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

The thermal conductivity of fresh and irradiated U-Mo dispersion and monolithic fuel has been investigated experimentally and compared to theoretical models. During in-pile irradiation, thermal conductivity of fresh dispersion fuel at a temperature of 150 °C decreased from 59 W/m·K to 18 W/m·K at a burn-up of 4.9·1021 f/cc and further to 9 W/m·K at a burn-up of 6.1·1021 f/cc. Fresh monolithic fuel has a considerably lower thermal conductivity of 15 W/m·K at a temperature of 150 °C and consequently its decrease during in-pile irradiation is less steep than for dispersion fuel. For a burn-up of 3.5·1021 f/cc of monolithic fuel, a thermal conductivity of 11 W/m·K at a temperature of 150 °C has been measured by Burkes et al. (2015). The difference of decrease for both fuels originates from effects in the matrix that occur during irradiation, like for dispersion fuel the gradual disappearance of the Al matrix with increased burn-up and the subsequent growth of an interaction layer (IDL) between the U-Mo fuel particle and Al matrix and subsequent matrix hardening. The growth of fission gas bubbles and the decomposition of the U-Mo crystal lattice also affect both dispersion and monolithic fuel.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)304-313
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Nuclear Materials
Volume503
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2018

Keywords

  • Composite materials
  • Nuclear reactor materials
  • Thermal analysis
  • Thermo-physical properties

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