Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1998 International RERTR Meeting

CNEA/ANL COLLABORATION PROGRAM TO DEVELOP AN OPTIMIZED VERSION
OF DARTVALIDATION AND ASSESSMENT BY MEANS OF
U₃Si_X AND U₃O₈-Al DISPERSED CNEA MINIPLATE IRRADIATION BEHAVIOR

Diego Solís, Horacio Taboada
División Elaboración Combustibles Avanzados,
U.A. Combustibles Nucleares, Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica,
Avda. Gral. Paz 1499, 1650 San Martín, Pcia. de Buenos Aires, República Argentina

Jeffrey Rest
Energy Technology Division,
Argonne National Laboratory,
1700 South Cass Avenue Argonne IL 60439-4841, USA

Abstract

The DART code is based upon a thermomechanical model that can predict swelling, recrystallization, fuel-meat interdiffusion and other issues related with MTR dispersed FE behavior under irradiation. As a part of a common effort to develop an optimized version of DART, a comparison between DART predictions and CNEA miniplates irradiation experimental data was made. The irradiation took place during 1981-82 for U3O8 miniplates and 1985-86 for U₃Si_x at Oak Ridge Research Reactor (ORR).

The microphotographs were studied by means of IMAWIN 3.0 Image Analysis Code and different fission gas bubbles distributions were obtained. Also it was possible to find and identify different morphologic zones. In both kinds of fuels, different phases were recognized, like particle peripheral zones with evidence of Al-U reaction, internal recrystallized zones and bubbles.

A very good agreement between code prediction and irradiation results was found. The few discrepancies are due to local, fabrication and irradiation uncertainties, as the presence of U₃Si phase in U₃Si₂ particles and effective burnup.

---

---