| 1. |
- Juslin, N., et al.
(författare)
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Simulation of threshold displacement energies in FeCr
- 2007
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Ingår i: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-583X .- 1872-9584. ; 255:1, s. 75-77
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We have studied the role of chromium on threshold displacement energies in FeCr for the fusion reactor steel relevant concentration 10% Cr. We have used molecular dynamics simulations in order to determine whether the observed Cr-content dependence of macroscopic properties can be due to the defect production. We compare FeCr-alloys with pure iron and chromium, employing two different potential sets for the Fe-Cr system. We find that there are no significant differences between pure iron and FeCr with 10% Cr for the 100, 110 and 111 directions and the average threshold energy.
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| 2. |
- Sandberg, Nils, et al.
(författare)
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Carbon impurity dissolution and migration in bcc Fe-Cr : First-principles calculations
- 2008
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Ingår i: Physical Review B. Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. - 1098-0121 .- 1550-235X. ; 78:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- First-principles density-functional theory calculations for C solution enthalpies, H-sol, and diffusion activation enthalpies, H-diff, in body-centered-cubic Fe and Cr are presented. The results for C in Fe compare well with experiments, provided that the effect of magnetic disordering is accounted for. Likewise, in Cr, the calculated Hsol and Hdiff agree well with available experiments. In both materials, the deviation between calculated enthalpies and critically assessed experimental enthalpies are less than 0.05 eV. Further, first-principles calculations for the interaction energies between a solute (e.g., a Cr atom in bcc Fe) and an interstitial C atom are presented. The results are in conflict with those inferred from internal friction (IF) experiments in disordered Fe-Cr-C alloys. A simple model of C relaxation in disordered Fe-Cr is used to compare theoretical and experimental IF curves directly. The results suggest that a more extensive study of the energetic, thermodynamic, and kinetic aspects of C migration in Fe-Cr is needed.
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| 3. |
- Wallenius, Janne, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Muonic atom deexcitation via formation of metastable molecular states in light of experimental verification
- 2001
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Ingår i: Hyperfine Interactions. - 0304-3843 .- 1572-9540. ; 138:04-jan, s. 285-288
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In a recent experiment performed at PSI, a peak in the time-of-flight distribution of pmu(1s) atoms could be identified with decay of ppmu* molecular ions situated below the 2s threshold, providing 900 eV of kinetic energy to the pmu atom. This finding may be interpreted in terms of the side path model which suggests that metastable muonic molecules may form with high probability in resonant collisions between muonic hydrogen in the 2s state and hydrogen molecules, e.g., pmu(2s)H-2-->[(ppmu*)(vJ)(pq) - pee(])v(K) --> [(ppmu*)(v'J')(p'q') - pe](+) + e(-). The Coulombic decay of the Auger stabilised ppmu* molecular ion then leads to the formation of highly energetic pmu(1s) atoms. In the present paper calculations of resonant formation rates in pure hydrogen are presented and compared to the quenching rate of pmu(2s) atoms measured at low hydrogen density.
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| 4. |
- Bortot, Sara, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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BELLA : a multi-point dynamics code for simulation of fast reactors
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Ingår i: Annals of Nuclear Energy. - 0306-4549 .- 1873-2100.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, the multi-point dynamics code BELLA and its benchmarking with respect to SAS4A/SASSYS- 1 is described for a small fast reactor cooled with natural convection of lead (ELECTRA). It is shown that BELLA is capable of reproducing the magnitude of mass-flow, reactivity, power and temperature excursions during design extension conditions with an accuracy better than 10%. Hence, the BELLA code can be used for safety-informed design and stability analyses of fast reactor systems, permitting to isolate essential phenomena and trends of significance for their safety assessment.
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| 5. |
- Costa, Diogo Ribeiro, et al.
(författare)
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Coated UN microspheres embedded in UO2 matrix as an innovative advanced technology fuel: Early progress
- 2021
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Ingår i: TopFuel 2021 Light Water Reactor Fuel Performance Conference, Santander, Spain, October 24-28, 2021..
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Uranium nitride (UN)-uranium dioxide (UO2) composites have been proposed as an innovative advanced technology fuel (ATF) option for light water reactors (LWRs). However, the interdiffusion of oxygen and nitrogen during fabrication result in the formation of α-U2N3. A way to avoid this interaction is to coat the UN with a material that is impermeable to oxygen and nitrogen, has a high melting point, high thermal conductivity, and reasonable low neutron cross-section. Among many candidates,refractory metals may be the first option. In this study, we present an early progressresult of fabricating an innovative ATF concept: coated UN microspheres embedded in UO2 matrix. To do so, the following steps are performed: 1) diffusion couple experiments of UN-X-UO2 (X=W, Mo, Ta, Nb, V) to evaluate the interactions between the coating candidates (X) and the fuels; 2) selection of the most promising candidates; 3) use a surrogate material (ZrN microspheres) to develop processes to coat the microspheres with nanopowders: dry and wet methods; 4) coating the UN microspheres with a selected method; 5) finally, sinter a coated UN-UO2 composite using spark plasma sintering (SPS), and compare the results with an uncoated UNUO2 composite sintered at the same SPS conditions (1500 °C, 80 MPa, 3 min,vacuum). The diffusion couple results indicate W and Mo as the most promising candidates, with the wet method showing the smoothest surface. So, dense (~95 %TD) W/UN-UO2 and Mo/UN-UO2 were sintered and the preliminary results show that the tungsten coating was not efficient due to poor adhesion. Conversely, the Mo coating (~15 µm) was efficient against the α-U2N3 formation. Therefore, this early progress indicates the possibility of fabricating an innovative ATF concept using a low cost and potentially applicable coating method.
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| 6. |
- Costa, Diogo Ribeiro, et al.
(författare)
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Coated ZrN sphere-UO2 composites as surrogates for UN-UO2 accident tolerant fuels
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Nuclear Materials. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-3115 .- 1873-4820. ; 567, s. 153845-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Uranium nitride (UN) spheres embedded in uranium dioxide (UO2) matrix is considered an innovative accident tolerant fuel (ATF). However, the interaction between UN and UO2 restricts the applicability of such composite in light water reactors. A possibility to limit this interaction is to separate the two materials with a diffusion barrier that has a high melting point, high thermal conductivity, and reasonably low neutron cross-section. Recent density functional theory calculations and experimental results on interface interactions in UN-X-UO2 systems (X = V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W) concluded that Mo and W are promising coating candidates. In this work, we develop and study different methods of coating ZrN spheres, used as a surrogate material for UN spheres: first, using Mo or W nanopowders (wet and binder); and second, using chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of W. ZrN-UO2 composites containing 15 wt% of coated ZrN spheres were consolidated by spark plasma sintering (1773 K, 80 MPa) and characterised by SEM/FIB-EDS and EBSD. The results show dense Mo and W layers without interaction with UO2. Wet and binder Mo methods provided coating layers of about 20 µm and 65 µm, respectively, while the binder and CVD of W methods layers of about 12 µm and 3 µm, respectively.
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| 7. |
- Costa, Diogo Ribeiro
(författare)
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Encapsulated additive nuclear fuels as an innovative accident tolerant fuel concept : fabrication, characterisation and oxidation resistance
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Nuclear Materials. - 0022-3115 .- 1873-4820.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- UN-UO2 composites are considered an accident tolerant fuel (ATF) option for light water reactors (LWRs). However, the interactions between UN and UO2 and the low oxidation resistance of UN limit the application of such ATF composite concept in LWRs. A potential alternative to overcome these issues is encapsulating the UN fuel before sintering. Based on our recent studies, molybdenum and tungsten are selected to encapsulate UN spheres. In this article, different coating techniques, such as powder coating, chemical vapour deposition (CVD), and physical vapour deposition (PVD), were developed and applied to encapsulate surrogates and UN spheres. Encapsulated UN-UO2 pellets fabricated by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method (1773 K, 80 MPa) were characterised by complementary techniques and evaluated against their oxidation resistance in air up to 973 K. The results show inert, dense, and non-uniform Mo and W layers of about 28 μm and 32 μm, respectively, obtained by the powder coating method. PVD provided uniform and dense layers of Mo and W of approximately 1.0 μm and 4.0 μm, respectively, but with cracks at the interface with the surrogate spheres. PVD-Mo onto UN spheres shows a dense and well-adhered layer of about 0.5 μm but with W contamination from the previous coating. The PVD-W and CVD-W results and the oxidation experiments will be in the final version of this manuscript.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Costa, Diogo Ribeiro, et al.
(författare)
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Oxidation of UN/U 2 N 3 -UO 2 composites: an evaluation of UO 2 as an oxidation barrier for the nitride phases
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Nuclear Materials. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-3115 .- 1873-4820. ; 544
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Composite fuels such as UN-UO2 are being considered to address the lower oxidation resistance of the UN fuel from a safety perspective for use in light water reactors, whilst improving the in-reactor behaviour of the more ubiquitous UO2 fuel. An innovative UN-UO2 accident tolerant fuel has recently been fabricated and studied: UN microspheres embedded in UO2 matrix. In the present study, detailed oxidative thermogravimetric investigations (TGA/DSC) of high-density UN/U2N3-UO2 composite fuels (91-97 %TD), as well as post oxidised microstructures obtained by SEM, are reported and analysed. Triplicate TGA measurements of each specimen were carried out at 5 K/min up to 973 K in a synthetic air atmosphere to assess their oxidation kinetics. The mass variation due to the oxidation reactions (%), the oxidation onset temperatures (OOTs), and the maximum reaction temperatures (MRTs) are also presented and discussed. The results show that all composites have similar post oxidised microstructures with mostly intergranular cracking and spalling. The oxidation resistance of the pellet with initially 10 wt% of UN microspheres is surprisingly better than the UO2 reference. Moreover, there is no significant difference in the OOT (~557 K) and MRT (~615 K) when 30 wt% or 50 wt% of embedded UN microspheres are used. Therefore, the findings in this article demonstrate that the UO2 matrix acts as a barrier to improve the oxidation resistance of the nitride phases at the beginning of life conditions.
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| 10. |
- Costa, Diogo Ribeiro, et al.
(författare)
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UN microspheres embedded in UO2 matrix: An innovative accident tolerant fuel
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Nuclear Materials. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-3115 .- 1873-4820. ; 540
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Uranium nitride (UN)-uranium dioxide (UO2) composite fuels are being considered as an accident tolerant fuel (ATF) option for light water reactors. However, the complexity related to the chemical interactions between UN and UO(2 )during sintering is still an open problem. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the influence of the sintering parameters on the amount and morphology of the alpha-U2N3 phase formed. In this study, a detailed investigation of the interaction between UN and UO2 is provided and a formation mechanism for the resulting alpha-U2N3 phase is proposed. Coupled with these analyses, an innovative ATF concept was investigated: UN microspheres and UO2,13 powder were mixed and subsequently sintered by spark plasma sintering. Different temperatures, pressures, times and cooling rates were evaluated. The pellets were characterised by complementary techniques, including XRD, DSC, and SEM-EDS/WDS/EBSD. The UN and UO2 interaction is driven by O diffusion into the UN phase and N diffusion in the opposite direction, forming a long-range solid solution in the UO2 matrix, that can be described as UO2-xNx. The cooling process decreases the N solubility in UO2-xNx, causing then N redistribution and precipitation as alpha-U2N3 phase along and inside the UO2 grains. This precipitation mechanism occurs at temperatures between 1273 K and 973 K on cooling, following specific crystallographic grain orientation patterns. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
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