Thermal diffusivity of Americium mononitride from 373 to 1473 K

Thermal conductivities of (Np,Am)N and (Pu,Am)N solid solutions

“…The detailed information of the measurement was mentioned in Ref. [8,12]. The uncertainty of the thermal diffusivity values was evaluated to be within ±5 % [12].…”

“…[8,12]. The uncertainty of the thermal diffusivity values was evaluated to be within ±5 % [12]. The temperature response at the rear surface was analyzed by the curve fitting method [13,14].…”

“…Several results have so far been reported for the thermal conductivities of uranium nitride, UN [1][2][3], neptunium nitride, NpN [4,5], plutonium nitride, PuN [3,6,7], americium nitride, AmN [5,8] and (U,Pu)N, (U,Np)N and (Np,Pu)N solid solutions [3,9,10]. However, there has been no experimental data of the thermal conductivities for transuranium nitride solid solutions containing Am which is an important element for the transmutation.…”

Synthesis and Optimization of the Sintering Kinetics of Actinide Nitrides

“…Of the reactors listed in the table, the ones able to incorporate nitride fuels include: the Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (GFR), the Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (LFR), and the Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) [51,52]. The nitrides have been identified for these reactor-types primarily due to their desirable properties such as; high melting temperatures combined with greater actinide densities and greater thermal conductivities when compared to other fuel forms [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. However, due to their propensity for oxidation, handling concerns arise when considering different synthesis techniques and the partial pressure of oxygen is a significant factor in the purity of the nitride materials.…”

“…In Table 2 it is seen that candidate non-fertile and low-fertile fuel forms for Generation IV reactor applications are primarily nitride and oxide fuels. Nitride fuels are favored over the oxide fuels due to their higher density of actinides, lower enrichment, and higher thermal conductivities (by approximately 5-10 times) [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], leading to lower "burning" temperatures and decreased cladding compatibility concerns. Although the nitrides are more efficient fuel forms, there are some disadvantages associated with them.…”