TY - JOUR
T1 - In-situ TEM study of the ion irradiation behavior of U3Si2 and U3Si5
AU - Yao, Tiankai
AU - Gong, Bowen
AU - He, Lingfeng
AU - Miao, Yinbin
AU - Harp, Jason M.
AU - Tonks, Michael
AU - Lian, Jie
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy , Office of Nuclear Energy under a Nuclear Engineer University Program (award number: DE-NE0008564 ) and the US National Science Foundation under an award of DMR 1151028 . Ion beam irradiation experiments are supported through a NSUF RTE award (award number: 17-957 ) under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-051D14517 as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities Experiments. This work is also part of a collaboration led by Westinghouse Electric Company comprising several national laboratories, vendors, and universities awarded in response to the DE-FOA-0000712 funding opportunity.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - U3Si2 and U3Si5 are two important uranium silicide phases currently under extensive investigation as potential fuel forms or components for light water reactors (LWRs) to enhance accident tolerance. In this paper, their irradiation behaviors are studied by ion beam irradiations with various ion mass and energies, and their microstructure evolution is investigated by in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). U3Si2 can easily be amorphized by ion beam irradiations (by 1 MeV Ar2+ or Kr2+) at room temperature with the critical amorphization dose less than 1 dpa. The critical amorphization temperatures of U3Si2 irradiated by 1 MeV Kr2+ and 1 MeV Ar2+ ion are determined as 580 ± 10 K and 540 ± 5 K, respectively. In contrast, U3Si5 remains crystalline up to 8 dpa at room temperature and is stable against ion irradiation-induced amorphization up to ∼50 dpa by either 1 MeV Kr2+ or 150 KeV Kr+ at 623 K. These results provide valuable experimental data to guide future irradiation experiments, support the relevant post irradiation examination, and serve as the experimental basis for the validation of advanced fuel performance models.
AB - U3Si2 and U3Si5 are two important uranium silicide phases currently under extensive investigation as potential fuel forms or components for light water reactors (LWRs) to enhance accident tolerance. In this paper, their irradiation behaviors are studied by ion beam irradiations with various ion mass and energies, and their microstructure evolution is investigated by in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). U3Si2 can easily be amorphized by ion beam irradiations (by 1 MeV Ar2+ or Kr2+) at room temperature with the critical amorphization dose less than 1 dpa. The critical amorphization temperatures of U3Si2 irradiated by 1 MeV Kr2+ and 1 MeV Ar2+ ion are determined as 580 ± 10 K and 540 ± 5 K, respectively. In contrast, U3Si5 remains crystalline up to 8 dpa at room temperature and is stable against ion irradiation-induced amorphization up to ∼50 dpa by either 1 MeV Kr2+ or 150 KeV Kr+ at 623 K. These results provide valuable experimental data to guide future irradiation experiments, support the relevant post irradiation examination, and serve as the experimental basis for the validation of advanced fuel performance models.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.08.058
DO - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.08.058
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85052910753
SN - 0022-3115
VL - 511
SP - 56
EP - 63
JO - Journal of Nuclear Materials
JF - Journal of Nuclear Materials
ER -