The Hydrogen Corrosion of Uranium: Identification of Underlying Causes and Proposed Mitigation Strategies

The microstructure and hydriding characteristics of high temperature aged U–13 at.%Nb alloy

“…From the enlarged image, an expanded hydriding area can be clearly distinguished. However, we do not assume the hydrided areas to be hydride, as they do not exhibit the powder form and they have a composite character, which is different from previously reported results [17,18] indicating the reaction products of uranium and hydrogen to be b-UH 3 powders. Then, do the circular areas signify a kind of new reaction product just like the similar reaction products (UH 3 Mo 0.18 ) obtained from the reaction between the so-called UMo 0.18 [19] and hydrogen?…”

The effects of metal surface geometry on the formation of uranium hydride

“…This observation tallies well with numerous previous studies that have indicated that localised strain effects in the metal may be significant for promoting hydride formation and have recently been discussed in detail by Loui [28]. For example, recent density functional theory modelling studies by Taylor and Lillard [29] have investigated the interatomic penetration of hydrogen into uranium surfaces.…”

Effect of alloyed Ti on the microstructure and corrosion characteristics of a U–Ti alloy in a hydrogen environment

“…Besides, research efforts aimed to explain the corrosion initiation of uranium, especially nucleation sites where UH 3 forms, are also conducted. A strong correlation between hydride corrosion and misorientation boundaries on U has been repeatedly observed by different researchers [5][6][7][8][9][10]. In addition, studies have shown that hydride formation and inclusions are correlated [1,5,8,9,11].…”