Effective Equation-of-state Measurements on Uranium Dioxide. [LMFBR]. PDF Download

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Book Description
The safety analysis of Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) systems requires knowledge of the vapor pressure of reactor fuels up to 6000 K.A new technique was developed to obtain experimental vapor pressure data for reactor fuel materials at high temperatures and pressures. Fuel samples are pulse fission heated in the Annular Core Pulse Reactor (ACPR) at heating rates comparable to those anticipated during a severe LMFBR transient. Since the vapor of reactor fuels may contain several dissociated fuel species, volatile fission products, and/or fission gas, and the evolution of that pressure may be time or rate dependent, the terminology ''effective equation-of-state (EEOS) measurement'' was used to differentiate these results from the vapor pressure of pure materials. This technique can be easily applied to plutonium bearing and previously irradiated fuels. The EEOS technique was used to determine the vapor pressure of high purity uranium dioxide with an oxygen-to-metal ratio of 2.08. Energy depositions of up to 2720 J/g relative to room temperature were obtained, resulting in measured pressures in excess of 38 mpa.