Microstructural characterization of as-fabricated and irradiated U-Mo fuel using SEM/EBSD

JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS

卷:509

Article

Jadernas, Daniel¹  Gan, Jian¹  Keiser, Dennis¹  Madden, James¹  Bachhav, Mukesh¹  Jue, Jan-Fong¹  Robinson, Adam¹ 

[1] Idaho Natl Lab, Mat & Fuels Complex, 2525 Fremont Ave, Idaho Falls, ID 83402 USA

关键词: U-Mo;    Nuclear fuel;    Neutron irradiation;    SEM;    EBSD;    Subgrain formation;    Polygonization;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.06.007

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD) is an effective technique for revealing many details about the microstructure of materials, e.g. crystallographic orientation, grain size, grain boundary properties, texture, intragranular misorientation, and subgrain formation. Since these details are of interest for improving the irradiation performance understanding of any irradiated nuclear fuel (e.g. swelling behavior), this technique has been applied successfully on U-7 wt% Mo before and after irradiation. This fuel is a high-density, low-enriched uranium fuel currently being developed for application in research and test reactors. Based on the results of this characterization, it was found that when as-fabricated U-7 wt% Mo is irradiated to around 5.3 x 10(21) fissions/cm(3) the original large grains (diameter similar to 4 mu m) are subdivided into much smaller grains (diameter similar to 0.3 mu m) and most of these subdivided grain boundaries are low angle boundaries. The EBSD analysis suggests that the grain subdivision in the irradiated U-7 wt% Mo was driven by polygonization, not recrystallization as defined by classic metallurgy as a result of heavy cold work followed by heat treatment. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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