New Fuel Assemblies for Advanced Nuclear Technologies

用于先进核技术的新型燃料组件

• 批准号: EP/V043730/1
• 负责人: Robert William Harrison
• 金额: $ 87.09万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FV043730%2F1
• 关键词: New; Fuel; Assemblies; Advanced; Nuclear

Meeting the growing energy demand from an increasing population, whilst addressing the depletion of fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gases is the one of the grandest scale challenges of the 21st century. Currently, around 15% of the world's electricity is generated by nuclear fission energy, the largest supply by any non-greenhouse gas emitting resource and it will be critical to the country's energy mix if the UK is to meet its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as evidenced by the construction the UKs first nuclear power plant in two decades at Hinkley point C. However, new materials are being developed to improve the intrinsic safety of current nuclear reactors and for deployment in future nuclear power plant technologies. The fuel materials to be studied in this project include uranium silicide, nitride and boride and cladding materials, silicon carbide, zirconium carbide and zirconium nitride will be studied to asses their feasibility for use in current and next generation nuclear power plants by using ion beam irradiation to mimic the conditions of a nuclear reactor and performed an in-depth characterisation of the materials post irradiation. These novel fuel materials are strong candidates to replace current uranium oxide fuel assemblies due to their much higher thermal conductivity, which will reduce fuel temperatures and buy vital time in an accident scenario, such as Fukushima like accident. The cladding materials also have much higher melting temperature than the currently used Zr alloy in water cooled reactors and so would delay or even mitigate meltdown scenarios. If these materials can prove themselves in current nuclear reactors for these reasons, they will also be promising for deployment in next generation nuclear power plants which will operate at much higher temperatures and under more extreme radiation damage.Radiation damage from neutron bombardment causes atomic displacement which leads to defects in materials that can evolve as a function of temperature. In addition to this build-up of defects, gases (such as hydrogen and helium) can accumulate from transmutation reactions. These gases interact with the defects formed and can further degrade the mechanical and thermophysical properties. Research into the effects of radiation damage on the properties of these advanced non-oxide ceramics are in their infancy and will need to be better understood before the materials can be developed further and eventually deployed.This project will use facilities at the Nuclear Fuel Centre for Excellence and the Dalton Cumbria Facility (DCF) based withing the Henry Royce Institute to manufacture, irradiate and perform micro and nano-structural characterisation of the materials post irradiation. Thermal analysis of the materials will then be performed at project partners at the University of Oxford and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will answer the key question - what effect does radiation damage have on the superior thermal conductivity of these materials and do they fall to levels below which developing these new materials becomes uneconomical? Finally, from the highly detailed understanding of the effect of radiation damage on their micro and nano-structure, can we reverse engineer these materials

满足日益增长的人口日益增长的能源需求，同时解决化石燃料枯竭问题并减少温室气体排放是 21 世纪最严峻的挑战之一。目前，世界上约 15% 的电力由核裂变能源产生，这是所有非温室气体排放资源中最大的供应量，如果英国要在 2050 年实现净零碳排放的目标（如在欣克利角 C 建设英国二十年来第一座核电站所证明的那样），核裂变能源对英国的能源结构至关重要。然而，正在开发新材料，以提高当前核反应堆的本质安全性并用于未来核电的部署 植物技术。该项目将研究的燃料材料包括硅化铀、氮化物和硼化物以及包层材料、碳化硅、碳化锆和氮化锆，通过使用离子束辐照来模拟核反应堆的条件并对辐照后材料进行深入表征，以评估它们在当前和下一代核电站中使用的可行性。这些新型燃料材料由于其更高的导热性而成为取代当前氧化铀燃料组件的有力候选者，这将降低燃料温度并在发生事故（例如福岛事故）时赢得宝贵的时间。包壳材料的熔化温度也比目前水冷反应堆中使用的锆合金高得多，因此可以延迟甚至减轻熔化情况。如果这些材料能够在当前的核反应堆中证明自己的能力，那么它们也将有希望部署在下一代核电站中，这些核电站将在更高的温度和更极端的辐射损伤下运行。中子轰击引起的辐射损伤会导致原子位移，从而导致材料中出现缺陷，这些缺陷会随着温度的变化而演变。除了缺陷的积累之外，嬗变反应还会积累气体（例如氢气和氦气）。这些气体与形成的缺陷相互作用，并可能进一步降低机械和热物理性能。关于辐射损伤对这些先进非氧化物陶瓷性能影响的研究还处于起步阶段，在材料进一步开发和最终部署之前需要更好地了解。该项目将使用位于亨利·莱斯研究所内的核燃料卓越中心和道尔顿坎布里亚设施 (DCF) 的设施来制造、辐照材料并进行辐照后材料的微米和纳米结构表征。然后，牛津大学和麻省理工学院 (MIT) 的项目合作伙伴将对这些材料进行热分析，从而回答关键问题：辐射损伤对这些材料的卓越导热性有何影响？导热性是否会下降到开发这些新材料变得不经济的水平？最后，从对辐射损伤对其微米和纳米结构的影响的高度详细了解中，我们可以对这些材料进行逆向工程吗？

项目成果

Microstructure and radiation tolerance of molybdenum-rich glass composite nuclear waste forms

富钼玻璃复合核废料形态的微观结构和耐辐射性能

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2023.154635
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Journal of Nuclear Materials
• 影响因子: 3.1
• 作者: Zagyva T

In situ TEM study of heavy-ion irradiation-induced amorphisation and electron beam-induced recrystallisation in powellite (CaMoO4)

• DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2023.119391
• 发表时间: 2023-10
• 期刊: Acta Materialia
• 影响因子: 9.4
• 作者: Tamás Zagyva;A. H. Mir;L. Leay;Brian O'Driscoll;Mike Harrison;Tracey Taylor;Robert W. Harrison

A spatially resolved analysis of dislocation loop and nanohardness evolution in proton irradiated Zircaloys

质子辐照锆合金中位错环和纳米硬度演化的空间分辨分析

• DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2024.119799
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: Acta Materialia
• 影响因子: 9.4
• 作者: Koç Ö

Development and Comparison of Field Assisted Sintering Techniques to Densify CeO2 Ceramics

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2022.06.079
• 发表时间: 2022-07
• 期刊: Journal of the European Ceramic Society
• 影响因子: 5.7
• 作者: R. Harrison;J. Morgan;J. Buckley;S. Bostanchi;C. Green;R. White;D. Pearmain;T. Abram;D. Goddard;N.J. Barron

Spark plasma sintering of (U,Ce)O2 as a MOx nuclear fuel surrogate

火花等离子体烧结 (U,Ce)O2 作为 MOx 核燃料替代品

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153302
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Journal of Nuclear Materials
• 影响因子: 3.1
• 作者: Harrison R