Burnup and Thermal Annealing Effect on Structural Change and Structural Parameters of Uranium-Molybdenum Dispersion Fuel

Abstract

Experimental studies of the influence of fuel burnup in the range (3.1–6.9)·10²¹ fissions/cm³ and subsequent isochronous thermal annealing in the range 150–580°C in 1 h on the change in the structure and structural parameters of the components of dispersion fuel (U–Mo)/Al irradiated in IVV-2M are presented. It is found that the changes in the lattice parameters of the alloy γ-(U–Mo) and aluminum with increasing burnup and annealing temperature are of multistage character. It is determined that as fuel burnup increases the change in the lattice parameters of the alloy and aluminum is nonmonotonic, while the lattice parameters decrease monotonically with increasing temperature of isochronous annealing.