Analysis of irradiated U-7wt%Mo dispersion fuel microstructures using automated image processing

JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS

卷:475

Article

Collette, R.¹  King, J.¹  Buesch, C.²  Keiser, D. D., Jr.³  Williams, W.³  Miller, B. D.³  Schulthess, J.³ 

[1] Colorado Sch Mines, Nucl Sci & Engn Program, 1500 Illinois St, Golden, CO 80401 USA

[2] Oregon State Univ, 1500 SW Jefferson St, Corvallis, OR 97331 USA

[3] Idaho Natl Lab, Nucl Fuels & Mat Div, POB 1625, Idaho Falls, ID 83415 USA

关键词: Nuclear fuel;    MATLAB;    Automated image analysis;    Fission bubbles;    Fission density;    Porosity;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jnucmat.2016.03.028

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The High Performance Research Reactor Fuel Development (HPPRFD) program is responsible for developing low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel substitutes for high performance reactors fueled with highly enriched uranium (HEU) that have not yet been converted to LEU. The uranium-molybdenum (U-Mo) fuel system was selected for this effort. In this study, fission gas pore segmentation was performed on U-7wt%Mo dispersion fuel samples at three separate fission densities using an automated image processing interface developed in MATLAB. Pore size distributions were attained that showed both expected and unexpected fission gas behavior. In general, it proved challenging to identify any dominant trends when comparing fission bubble data across samples from different fuel plates due to varying compositions and fabrication techniques. The results exhibited fair agreement with the fission density vs. porosity correlation developed by the Russian reactor conversion program. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free