NSUF 19-1814: TEM Characterization of Neutron Irradiated Nd2Zr2O7 and Its Thermal Recovery Behavior

The pyrochlore ceramic Nd2Zr2O7 has been found to be radiation resistant, showing comparable amorphization tolerance with fluorite zirconia, and been proposed to be an inert fuel matrix material which needs to be stable under neutron irradiation. However, the recent experiment results show that Nd2Zr2O7 exhibits different radiation amorphization resistance depends on the ion sources in a wide range of energy level. Besides, irradiation stability of Nd2Zr2O7 under similar neutron irradiation remains untouched so far. Therefore, a full characterization and understand on the neutron irradiation response of Nd2Zr2O7 is highly demanding to support its application as nuclear fuel material. In this proposal, we plan to conduct extensively microstructural characterization on the part of ATR irradiated pristine Nd2Zr2O7 pellets available at Irradiated Materials Characterization Laboratory (IMCL) at INL. A full characterization on the initiation and evolution of neutron irradiation induced defects in Nd2Zr2O7 pellets, such as dislocation loops, under different conditions will be the first objective. We also aim to build the connection between neutron and ion irradiation stability by comparing this study with previous ion irradiation results, which is of importance for the application of pyrochlore in nuclear actinides immobilization field. Observing the thermal recovery behavior of irradiation damaged crystal structure under Titan TEM is an additional objective aimed at improving understanding its water corrosion resistance as a potential nuclear fuel. The project PI is fully committed to meet the NSUF required research schedule and deliverable expectations.

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Abstract	The pyrochlore ceramic Nd2Zr2O7 has been found to be radiation resistant, showing comparable amorphization tolerance with fluorite zirconia, and been proposed to be an inert fuel matrix material which needs to be stable under neutron irradiation. However, the recent experiment results show that Nd2Zr2O7 exhibits different radiation amorphization resistance depends on the ion sources in a wide range of energy level. Besides, irradiation stability of Nd2Zr2O7 under similar neutron irradiation remains untouched so far. Therefore, a full characterization and understand on the neutron irradiation response of Nd2Zr2O7 is highly demanding to support its application as nuclear fuel material. In this proposal, we plan to conduct extensively microstructural characterization on the part of ATR irradiated pristine Nd2Zr2O7 pellets available at Irradiated Materials Characterization Laboratory (IMCL) at INL. A full characterization on the initiation and evolution of neutron irradiation induced defects in Nd2Zr2O7 pellets, such as dislocation loops, under different conditions will be the first objective. We also aim to build the connection between neutron and ion irradiation stability by comparing this study with previous ion irradiation results, which is of importance for the application of pyrochlore in nuclear actinides immobilization field. Observing the thermal recovery behavior of irradiation damaged crystal structure under Titan TEM is an additional objective aimed at improving understanding its water corrosion resistance as a potential nuclear fuel. The project PI is fully committed to meet the NSUF required research schedule and deliverable expectations.
Award Announced Date	2019-05-14T17:18:05.287
Awarded Institution	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Facility	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nuclear Reactor Laboratory
Facility Tech Lead	Alina Zackrone, Gordon Kohse
Irradiation Facility	None
PI	Yachun Wang
PI Email	[email protected]
Project Type	RTE
RTE Number	1814