1982•OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information)Requires access
Further experimental results of the irradiation of long-rod duplex-pellet screening tests in the NRX reactor (NLDR-2/3/4 tests)
Ryan Hoffman, J.F. Yerman
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Abstract
The duplex pellet concept waeither a principal area of investigation in the Advanced Water Breeder Applications (AWBA) program at the Bettis Laboratory. A duplex pellet consists of a cylindrical ThO/sub 2/ central pellet (fertile material) inside an oxide annulus of either UO/sub 2/, UO/sub 2/-ThO/sub 2/, or UO/sub 2/-ZrO/sub 2/-CaO (fissile material). The NLDR-2/3/4 test was one of several screening irradiation tests performed to investigate the behavior of duplex pellets. It consists of four 110-inch-long, 0.3-inch-diameter, Zircaloy-4 clad rods containing duplex pellets. Three rods contained UO/sub 2/ annuli. The fourth rod contained ThO/sub 2/-UO/sub 2/ annuli. All rods were irradiated in pressurized water loops in the NRX reactor to peak depletions. This report presents a description of the test rods and irradiation history and results of nondestructive examinations. Annulus composition and fuel dimensional changes, which were relatively small for all four rods.