Nanoscale compositional and structural analysis of U-10Mo alloys.
EMSL Project ID
50080
Abstract
PNNL as a part of the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Conversion within the Office of Material Minimization and Management (M3) is working on converting the high enriched uranium (HEU) fuel currently used in civilian research and test reactors to low enriched uranium fuels (LEU) to permanently secures the site by removing the threat posed by continued HEU operations. Several experimental programs aimed at developing of LEU fuels are in progress at PNNL in collaboration with other national laboratories and require detailed characterization of the microstructure of these fuels as a function of various processing methods and composition of raw materials. The materials consist primarily of cast or heat treated or rolled depleted uranium-10Mo alloy plates. The primary microstructure of these plates consists of U-Mo BCC matrix with other impurity phases like Uranium carbides, MoSi2 or oxide precipitates. In order to ensure the quality of the U-10Mo fuel plates as a function of different processing parameters and composition of raw materials, detailed microstructural characterization of the final U-10Mo alloys needs to be conducted using electron microscopy, xray diffraction and atom probe tomography. This EMSL proposal is submitted to obtain access to EMSL instrumentation in EMSL radiochemistry annex and in EMSL building for this nationally and globally significant project.
Project Details
Start Date
2017-11-28
End Date
2018-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Devaraj A., E.J. Kautz, L. Kovarik, S. Jana, C.A. Lavender, and V.V. Joshi. 2018. "Time Dependent Transformation of Metastable Discontinuous Precipitation Products to Equilibrium Phases in U10Mo Alloys." Scripta Materialia 156. PNNL-SA-134393. doi:10.1016/j.scriptamat.2018.07.010
Jana S, A Devaraj, L Kovarik, BW Arey, LE Sweet, T Varga, CA Lavender, and VV Joshi. 2017. "Kinetics of cellular transformation and competing precipitation mechanisms during sub-eutectoid annealing of U10Mo alloys." Journal of Alloys and Compounds 723:751-771. doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.06.292