Nuclear reactors are powered by fissile material releasing vast amounts of energy. Typical light water reactor fuel consists of UO2 ceramic pellets which are clad and sealed into zirconium alloy tubes. It is crucial that this fuel can maintain its physical form and robust mechanical properties after exposure to high temperatures and intense neutron radiation. Recent studies have revealed that the integrity of spent-fuel is highly dependent on the pellet-clad interfacial properties. In order to better understand the pellet-clad interface, a series of UO2 thin films deposited on Zircaloy were produced and characterized by in-situ TEM. During the TEM experiments the films were bombarded with ions to simulate the damage that occurs inside the reactor. Efforts to use ion irradiated UO2-Zircaloy films as a surrogate for studying hot spent nuclear fuel, which requires the use of hot cell facilities, in the development of multi-scale materials model will be discussed.

Synthesis of UO2-Zircaloy thin films to address pellet-cladding debonding

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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