SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1994
STP24005S

The Role of Phase-Boundary Fission-Gas Bubbles in the Cavitational Swelling of Irradiated U-Pu-Zr Fuel

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Cavitational void swelling, the bias-driven growth of voids, has been identified as a potential swelling mechanism in the alpha-uranium phase of irradiated U-Pu-Zr metal fuels for the Integral Fast Reactor being developed at Argonne National Laboratory. The trends in U-Pu-Zr swelling data prior to fuel cladding contact can be interpreted in terms of unrestrained cavitational-driven void swelling. It is theorized that the swelling mechanisms at work in the alpha-uranium phase can be modeled by single-vacancy and single-interstitial kinetics, with phase-boundary gas bubbles providing the void nuclei, thus avoiding the use of complicated defect-interaction terms required for the calculation of void nucleation. The focus of the examination of the kinetics of fission-gas evolution, as it relates to cavitational void swelling, is on the period prior to the formation of significant interconnected porosity and on the development of small phase-boundary gas bubbles that can act as void nuclei. Calculations for the evolution of phaseboundary fission-gas bubbles show that such bubbles provide critical cavity sizes (i.e., the size above which the cavity will grow by bias-driven vacancy flux) consistent with the observed incubation dose for the onset of rapid swelling and gas release.

Author Information

Rest, J
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, U.S.A.
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Details
Developed by Committee: E10
Pages: 1292–1303
DOI: 10.1520/STP24005S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-5262-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-1488-3