Fresh Fuel Characterization of U-Mo Alloys

The need to provide more accurate property information on U-Mo fuel alloys to reactor operators, modelers, researchers, fabricators, and regulators increases as success of the RERTR program continues. This presentation will provide an overview of fresh fuel U-Mo characterization activities on monolithic fuel occurring at the Idaho National Laboratory. The overview will particularly be focused on properties available through current and previous research, and also on the type of information still needed. The presentation will deal with mechanical, physical, and microstructural properties in terms of both integrated and separate effects. Appropriate discussion in terms of fabrication characteristics, impurities, thermodynamic response, and the effects on the topic areas will be provided, along with a brief background on the characterization techniques being used or being developed to obtain the information. Furthermore, efforts to measure similar characteristics as a function of irradiation conditions and determine end-of-life observations with beginning-of-life behavior will be discussed