Irradiation Behavior Of Uranium Fissium Alloys Ebr Ii Project

Download or read book Irradiation Behavior of Uranium-fissium Alloys. EBR-II Project written by J. H. Kittel and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A series of uranium-fissium and uranium-fissium-zirconium alloys was irradiated in thermal test reactors to study the relationship of dimensional stability to alloy composition, thermal cycling, burnup, irradiation temperature, post-irradiation heating, and cladding restraint. None of the alloy compositions tested showed irradiation behavior superior to the uranium-5 wt./% fissium alloy that has been used as driver fuel in EBR-II since it began operation. This alloy is among those uranium-base alloys most capable of resisting high-temperature irradiation swelling. None of the alloys showed evidence of the reversion to the metastable gamma phase that has been observed in comparable uranium-molybdenum alloys. Swelling of uranium-fissium alloys was effectively restrained by most of the 0.009-inch thick cladding materials investigated. Local hydrostatic forces due to swelling of the fuel caused the fuel to extrude extensively out of small vent holes in the cladding. Little axial fuel movement occurred within the cladding, however, even when the upper fuel surface was entirely unrestrained.