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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Advanced Characterization of Fuel-cladding Chemical Interaction between U-10Zr Fuel and HT9 Cladding Tested in Fast Flux Test Facility

Fuel cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) can greatly accelerate the cladding failure. However, due to the limited space in a fuel cladding assembly, it is historically challenging to gain an mechanistical understanding of the formation mechanism of FCCI and its influence on fuel and cladding performance. With the imminent need to qualify U-10Zr based metallic fuel cladded by HT-9 for advanced reactors demonstration project, it is of vital importance to use advanced characterization method to study FCCI in a unprecedent detailed manner and gain better mechanism understanding of FCCI. Mechanistic Fuel Failure (MFF) series of prototypic fuel elements irradiated in FFTF [1, 2] provides the best samples to study FCCI since the MFF-series assemblies had an axial fuel height the same as proposed length by industry partners. Jason et al. [3] has performed preliminary post-irradiation examination on a MFF fuel pin sample, which was extracted from the HT9 cladded U-10at.%Zr MFF-3 pin MFF-3 pin (#193045) at an axial location of X/L = 0.98. This sample has a peak burnup of 5.7 at.% and peak inner cladding temperature (PICT) of around 615 °C during in-core testing. Scanning electron microscope examination has identified visible FCCI region on more than half of the HT9 circumference [3]. The most striking feature are grain boundary attacking by apparently lanthanides (Lns) rich phase. However, SEM cannot provide accurate assessment of phase and concentration of grain boundary phases and prevented a better understanding of the formation mechanism of such attach. This study, by pairing transmission electron microscope (TEM) characterization and atom probe tomography (APT) techniques with in-situ micro-tensile testing in scanning electron microscope (SEM), aims at gaining in-depth understanding on the formed FCCI region. The identified FCCI region roughly consists of multilayers as illustrated in Figure 1 (c). The main findings are: (1) layer-B shows observable lanthanides (Lns) infiltration along grain boundaries and mechanical softening due to FCCI- and irradiation-induced microstructural and microchemistry changes, particularly the recovery of martensitic lath structure and dissolution of pre-existing M23C6 together with the formation of coarsened Laves phases, (Fe, Cr)2(Mo, W); (2) layer-C is Fe depleted but Lns significantly enriched, becoming very brittle; (3) layer-D is mainly composed of UFe2 and Lns; (4) three FCCI-induced intermetallic U-Fe-Zr phases, ? (Fe0.5Zr0.32U0.18), e (Fe0.3Zr0.4U0.3), ? (Fe0.06Zr0.23U0.71), were identified near layer-E; (5) the ? (Fe0.5Zr0.32U0.18) phase was characterized to be a face centered cubic (FCC) crystal structure. These results will help to better understanding the governing mechanism of FCCI and facilitating the development of theoretical model for assessing the performance of metallic fuel and cladding integrity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

FY17 Accomplishments - Testing Facilities and Capabilities at SWiFT, SNL

The Scaled Wind Farm Technologies (SWiFT) facility operated by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has, in support of the Atmosphere to electrons (A2e) research program, acquired measurements of wind turbine wake dynamics under various atmospheric conditions and while interacting with a downstream wind turbine. SNL researchers, in collaboration with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers, installed a customized LIDAR system created by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in one of the SWiFT wind turbines (Figure 1) and operated that turbine with intentional yaw-versus-winddirection misalignment to study the behavior of the turbine wake under numerous combinations of atmospheric conditions and turbine yaw offsets. The DTU-customized LIDAR provided detailed measurements of the wake’s shape and location at many distances downwind of the turbine (Figure 2). These measurements will benefit wind energy researchers looking to understand wind turbine wake behavior and improve modeling and simulation of wake dynamics, including the “wake steering” affect that is observed when turbine yaw offset is controlled. During the test campaign, two SWiFT wind turbines were operated at the same time to observe the influence of the turbines on each other as the wake of the upwind turbine was observed sweeping over and interacting with the downwind turbine.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Measuring changes in environmental radiological background from construction of an advanced nuclear reactor testing facility

We present a method to survey and track changes in the environmental radiological background during the construction and operation of advanced nuclear reactor facilities. We discuss the results of two surveys of the environmental gamma-radiation background at NEXT Lab, an advanced nuclear reactor research facility on the campus of Abilene Christian University, prior to the introduction of radioactive material. In both surveys, the observed radiation dosage rates are low, with the highest rates at 15% of the average total radiation dosage rate for the United States. We observe ≈20% changes in the radiological background of the property in locations where the environment was changed by construction and ≈20% variations within the facilities correlated with variations in building materials.

Environment↗
DOE OSTI2016

MCP-PMT studies at the High-B test facility at Jefferson Lab

Here we present preliminary results for the gain performance of commercially available 3- mum and 6- mum pore-size single-anode microchannel-plate photomultipliers (MCP PMTs) in magnetic fields up to 5 T and for various orientations of the sensor relative to the field direction. The measurements were performed at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, VA. Our results show that smaller-pore-size PMTs have better gain performance in magnetic fields. At various angles, the shape of the gain dependence on the strength of the magnetic field strongly depends on the type of the sensor. Also, for each sensor, the azimuthal dependence is strongly correlated with the polar angle. Overall, the sensors exhibit a reasonable performance up to 2 T, although that upper limit depends on the sensor, the applied high voltage, and the orientation of the sensor relative to the field. To optimize the operational and design parameters of MCP PMTs for performance in high magnetic fields, further measurements and simulation studies will be pursued. Furthermore, our studies are part of an R&D for development of a Detector of Internally Reflected Cherenkov Light for the central detector of a future U.S. Electron Ion Collider.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗