NSUF 19-1649: 3D Microstructure Reconstruction of the Peripheral Region of MOX FBR Fuel

The structural and chemical components of a fuel are important aspects to understand when trying to predict long-term performance. The high burn-up structure (HBS) in MOX poses a threat to safe reactor operation due to its potential to release massive amounts of fission gas at increased burn-ups. This project strives to reconstruct the HBS region in MOX fuel irradiated to a burn-up of 13.7% fissions per initial metal atoms (FIMA). A focused ion beam / scanning electron microscope (FIB/SEM) coupled with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detectors will be used to serially section the fuel while obtaining micrographs and scans of each section. The data acquired from the sectioning will then be used to reconstruct a comprehensive 3D representation of the microstructure. This reconstruction will then be incorporated into the MARMOT mesoscale nuclear materials tool to measure the fuel’s response under different irradiation conditions. Once complete, this project will provide an accurate model depicting the microstructural and microchemical characteristics of the MOX HBS. This project will significantly advance the current understanding of MOX fuel, with the potential of improving the accuracy of predictive models.

Additional Info

Mező	Érték
Awarded Institution	University of Florida
Embargo End Date	2020-11-08
Facility Tech Lead	Adrien Couet, Alina Montrose
NSUF Call	FY 2019 RTE 1st Call
PI	Casey McKinney
Project Member	Dr. Casey McKinney, Postdoctoral Research Associate - Oak Ridge National Laboratory (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3538-3614)
Project Notes	Awarded on 02/08/2019
Project Type	RTE
Publication	Three-Dimensional Microstructural Characterization of the Peripheral Region in FBR MOX Fuel Riley Parrish, Assel Aitkaliyeva, Casey McKinney Materials in Nuclear Energy Systems (MiNES) 2019-10-06 - 2019-10-10
RTE Number	1649