Uranium Diboride Composite Fuel Materials

二硼化铀是一种令人振奋的新型核材料，具有作为事故容错燃料的巨大潜力。由于福岛核事故，以及降低商业核电站内主动安全要求的愿望，这类燃料材料正在国际上加紧开发。在这个项目中，博士生将与一个成熟的研究团队一起工作，一个专门从事UB2复合材料研究的PDRA。学生将使用设在MACE系的核燃料卓越中心的最先进的核燃料实验室来制造和表征UB2/UO2复合材料。他们将在球团规模工作，复制工业技术，包括使用在Springfield燃料制造设施获得的UO2粉末，使用高质量压制系统的冷压和氢烧结。他们将使用一系列科学技术来表征制造的颗粒，包括光学和电子显微镜、X射线衍射和热物理测量。结果将被用于进一步优化复合颗粒的制造，并开发工业可扩展的制造路线。

Uranium Diboride is an exciting new nuclear material, which has great potential as an Accident Tolerant Fuel. This class of fuel materials is under intense international development as a result of the nuclear accident at Fukushiima, alongside the desire to reduce active safety requirements within commercial nuclear plants. During this programme, the PhD student will work alongside an established research team, with a dedicated PDRA also engaged on UB2 composite research. The student will manufacture and characterise UB2/UO2 composites using the state-of-the-art nuclear fuel labs at the Nuclear Fuel Centre of Excellence based in the Department of MACE. They will work at the pellet scale, reproducing industrial techniques including working with UO2 powders procued at the Springfields fuel fabrication facility, cold pressing using high-quality hold down systems and hydrogen sintering. They will characterise the manufactured pellets using a range of scientific techniques, including optical and electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermo-physical measurements. Results will be used to further optimise the manufacture of composite pellets and develop industrially scalable fabrication routes.