Uranium and cesium diffusion in fuel cladding of electrogenerating channel

Abstract

The results of reactor tests of a carbonitride fuel in a single-crystal cladding from a molybdenum-based alloy can be used in substantiating the operational reliability of fuels in developing a project of a megawatt space nuclear power plant. The results of experimental studies of uranium and cesium penetration into the single-crystal cladding of fuel elements with a carbonitride fuel are interpreted. Those fuel elements passed nuclear power tests in the Ya-82 pilot plant for 8300 h at a temperature of about 1500°C. It is shown that the diffusion coefficients for uranium diffusion into the cladding are virtually coincident with the diffusion coefficients measured earlier for uranium diffusion into polycrystalline molybdenum. It is found that the penetration of uranium into the cladding is likely to occur only in the case of a direct contact between the cladding and fuel. The experimentally observed nonmonotonic uranium-concentration profiles are explained in terms of predominant uranium diffusion along grain boundaries. It is shown that a substantially nonmonotonic behavior observed in our experiment for the uranium-concentration profile may be explained by the presence of a polycrystalline structure of the cladding in the surface region from its inner side. The diffusion coefficient is estimated for the grain-boundary diffusion of uranium. The diffusion coefficients for cesium are estimated on the basis of experimental data obtained in the present study.