Steam oxidation of uranium mononitride in pure and reducing steam atmospheres to 1200 °C

Wood, Elizabeth Sooby; Brigham, Brian A.; Robles, Geronimo; White, Joshua T.; Paisner, Scarlett Widgeon; Kardoulaki, Erofili; Williams, Brandon

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153487

Cited by 13 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Although water can alter and dissolve the surface of UN, this is not a method for complete dissolution. UN fuels have also been evaluated for tolerance to steam at temperatures up to 1200 °C as part of testing for Gen IV reactors (Jolkkonen et al, 2017;Sooby et al, 2022). Findings indicated pellet corrosion and evolution of ammonia and hydrogen gases.…”

Section: Aqueousmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neptunium mononitride as a target material for Pu-238 production

Peruski

2022

Front. Nucl. Eng.

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Deep space exploration requires specialized sources for both thermal and power applications. Radioactive decay heat of plutonium-238 (238Pu) provides these sources in the form of radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). The 238Pu is produced via neutron capture reaction involving neptunium-237 (237Np) target material. Continual optimization of 237Np target materials and evaluation of potential alternative targets for production of 238Pu RTGs are advantageous for meeting ongoing space power system resource requirements. Current production of 238Pu for RTGs for the United States space program utilizes neptunium dioxide (237NpO2) targets; however, the use of neptunium mononitride (237NpN) presents an opportunity to increase the mass of 237Np per target compared to the dioxide form, as well as increase the thermal conductivity of the target. To assess the viability of a 237NpN target material, the material chemistry must be thoroughly evaluated, including synthesis methods and dissolution and reprocessing schemes. This review presents a summary of synthesis pathways for 237NpN based on published literature on actinide mononitrides. Specific literature on 237NpN is limited, necessitating evaluation of other actinide systems to gather parallels. This suggests a need for additional experimental studies on 237NpN. A particular limitation in the existing literature is a lack of information on the differences in material characteristics, such as morphology, particle size, and trace chemical impurities, as a function of synthesis method. These parameters may affect subsequent reactor performance or dissolution of irradiated targets. The evaluation of existing literature is presented with a focus on the efficacy of 237NpN targets for 238Pu production.

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Section: Aqueousmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neptunium mononitride as a target material for Pu-238 production

Peruski

2022

Front. Nucl. Eng.

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“…Palladium silicides are observed in post-irradiation examination (PIE) of particle fuel forms (Tiegs, 1982;Wen et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2023) fabricated by collaborating investigators, with the authoring team observing the melt behavior through the thermal imaging camera. Lastly, uranium mononitride (UN) is an advanced reactor fuel form proposed for reactors which require high temperature stability, high uranium density, and improved thermal transport properties compared to conventional uranium dioxide (Matthews, 1993;Rogozkin et al, 2003;Jaques et al, 2008;Arai, 2012;Brown et al, 2014;Nunez et al, 2014;Jaques et al, 2015;Yang et al, 2015;Johnson et al, 2016;Ortega et al, 2016;Uygur, 2016;Wallenius et al, 2020;Sooby et al, 2021;Watkins et al, 2021). UN, unlike Ti and PdSi, has a high vapor pressure at the melt point, exhibiting volatilization during melt (Nunez et al, 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

High-temperature thermal imaging to inform the arc-melt synthesis of nuclear materials

Stone,

Khair,

Cavazos

et al. 2024

Front. Nucl. Eng.

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The advancement of nuclear energy technology necessitates the development of novel materials and synthesis methods to produce materials which enable new fuel cycles. Alongside the maturation of R&D scale technologies to produce these materials, there is an ongoing effort to develop in situ monitoring capabilities to reduce the time to the discovery and development of these fuels. Monitoring data can be leveraged in artificial intelligence platforms to detect phenomena which lead to varied macro- and microstructural features which impact the application and performance of samples synthesized. The present study presents early-stage findings of the implementation of high-temperature, high-frame-rate infrared thermal imaging to monitor the arc-melt synthesis of novel fuels and compounds relevant to advanced nuclear reactors. The study illustrates both the challenges and opportunities of this methodology, highlighting the importance of internal standards while determining emissivity and transmission values as well as visualizing volatilization during melt synthesis.

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