NSUF 24-4855: Fuel – Cladding Chemical Interaction of U10Zr Fuel and HT-9 Cladding Using in situ Heated TEM

The goal of this work is to use in situ heating to observe microstructure and phase transformations at the U-10Zr/HT-9 interface in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Lamellas will be extracted from four unique locations in the Fuel-Cladding Chemical Interaction (FCCI) region previously identified by other work. We hypothesize that the fission products present at the inner edge of the HT-9 cladding will become mobile when heated to reactor operating temperatures and will continue to migrate through the HT-9 at the grain boundaries while the eutectic U-Fe alloys may result in possible melting of fuel at the cladding interface when heated above normal operating temperatures in situ. We expect that lamella lift-out will take place the first month after award with the TEM analysis to follow in the month after. The remaining seven months will be reserved for data processing and writing of the manuscript. The final outcome of this work will be a manuscript published in a relevant journal such as Journal of Nuclear Materials. This work will provide valuable insight into the evolution of FCCI zones and their phases at normal and off-normal reactor temperatures and can be used to inform observations on macroscopic material behavior.

추가 정보

필드	값
Award Announced Date	2024-02-02T12:17:17.25
Awarded Institution	Idaho National Laboratory
Facility Tech Lead	Alina Montrose
Irradiation Facility
PI	Kourtney Wright
PI Email	[email protected]
Project Type	RTE
RTE Number	None