2006 International RERTR Meeting

Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the Meeting

Interdiffusion Behaviors of U-Mo-Zr/Al-Si

Jong Man Park, Ho Jin Ryu, Seok Jin Oh, Don Bae Lee, Chang Kyu Kim
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 150 Deokjin-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-353, Korea

and

Yeon Soo Kim, G. L. Hofman
Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave, Argonne, IL 60439, USA

ABSTRACT

We investigated the effect of a Zr addition to U-Mo on the reaction between U-Mo-Zr and Al-Si by out-of-pile tests, dispersion annealing and diffusion couple tests. By using vacuum induction melting and centrifugal atomization techniques, ingots and powders of U-7wt.%Mo alloys with 1, 2 and 4 wt.% Zr were fabricated. We examined the gamma phase stability of the gamma-heat-treated alloys by high-temperature annealing tests. Using the X-ray diffraction method, we observed that the gamma phase U-7Mo-Zr alloys decomposed similar to the U-7Mo alloys. To examine the inter-diffusion behavior, we fabricated dispersion samples by using U-Mo-Zr powders and Al-(0, 0.4, 2, 5)wt.%Si alloys. To compare the interdiffusion behaviors between annealing tests of the dispersion samples and diffusion couple samples, we prepared diffusion couples with the same compositional combinations as the dispersion samples and tested. Dispersion samples with high Zr contents slightly increased the inter-diffusion rates at 600oC, whereas the diffusion couples showed that a Zr addition to U-7Mo reduced the interaction rates. We were able to confirm the Si effect of suppressing the interaction growth rates. Zr added to U-Mo did not accumulate in the interaction layers to a large extent, whereas Si did when added to Al. An interaction product with the composition of Si-rich U(Si,Al)2 was formed on U-Mo-Zr in a U-Mo-Zr vs. Al-Si diffusion couple.

 

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