Thermal expansion of TRU nitride solid solutions as fuel materials for transmutation of minor actinides

Abstract

The lattice thermal expansion of the transuranium nitride solid solutions was measured to investigate the composition dependence. The single-phase solid solution samples of (Np 0.55Am 0.45)N, (Pu 0.59Am 0.41)N, (Np 0.21Pu 0.52Am 0.22Cm 0.05)N and (Pu 0.21Am 0.18Zr 0.61)N were prepared by carbothermic nitridation of the respective transuranium dioxides and nitridation of Zr metal through hydride. The lattice parameters were measured by the high temperature X-ray diffraction method from room temperature up to 1478 K. The linear thermal expansion of each sample was determined as a function of temperature. The average thermal expansion coefficients over the temperature range of 293–1273 K for the solid solution samples were 10.1, 11.5, 10.8 and 8.8 × 10 −6 K −1, respectively. Comparison of these values with those for the constituent nitrides showed that the average thermal expansion coefficients of the solid solution samples could be approximated by the linear mixture rule within the error of 2–3%.