NSUF 24-5002: Self-Alpha Irradiation of UO2-UB2 fuel

UO2-UB2 composite is an accident tolerant fuel with superior corrosion resistance compared to UO2, while the radiation damage of this composite fuel is unknown. A UO2-10%wt UB2 composite fuel, incorporating naturally occurring boron comprising 80.1% 11B and 19.9% 10B will be irradiated using the PULSTAR reactor at NC State University. The UO2-UB2 composites were prepared by pressureless sintering at 2073 K in an argon atmosphere. The 10B(n, α)7Li reactions can emit MeV-scale Li and He ions, which create homogeneous radiation damage and He implantation in both UO2 and UB2. The as irradiated samples will be annealed at high temperatures to grow He bubbles supported by a separate R&D project. The microstructure of as irradiated samples and high-temperature annealed samples will be characterized using the focused ion beam system (FIB) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at the the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES) - Microscopy and Characterization Suite.

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Поле	Значення
Awarded Institution	North Carolina State University
Embargo End Date	2026-09-03
Facility Tech Lead	Jason Hou, Mukesh Bachhav
Irradiation Facilities	Nuclear Reactor Program - PULSTAR
NSUF Call	FY 2024 RTE 2nd Call
PI	Sadman Sakib
PIE Facilities	Microscopy and Characterization Suite
Project Member	Dr. Lingfeng He, Associate Professor - North Carolina State University (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2763-1462)
Project Member	Mr Sadman Sakib, Graduate Research Assistant - North Carolina State University (https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0203-1718)
Project Type	RTE