Metallurgy Of Uranium Research Articles

Uranium to Electricity: The Chemistry of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle

The nuclear fuel cycle consists of a series of industrial processes that produce fuel for the production of electricity in nuclear reactors, use the fuel to generate electricity, and subsequently manage the spent reactor fuel. While the physics and engineering of controlled fission are central to the generation of nuclear power, chemistry dominates all other aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. An understanding of this chemistry is necessary to address the economic, environmental, safety, and proliferation issues that are essential to any substantive evaluation of nuclear power's contribution to the global energy portfolio. This article describes the role of chemistry in each component of the cycle from the metallurgy of uranium to the disposition of spent reactor fuel. It also addresses the economics of the components of the cycle and the costs of nuclear power relative to other sources of energy.

Growth of surface flaws induced by the environment and machining stresses in unalloyed uranium

Computer modelling techniques are used to predict the distribution of residual stresses in a machined uranium surface. The predictions are used to address the ageing of uranium exposed to inert gas based environments in terms of microcrack initiation and subsequent propagation. Metallographic observations of microcracking are used as the basis for the initial assessment of ageing behaviour. It is proposed that the near-surface residual stress field produced by machining influences the occurrence of microcracking. It is also suggested that corrosion-induced surface features act as initiation sites for microcracks, which begin to propagate by an environmentally assisted mechanism when the surface features reach a critical depth within the residual stress field of between 5 and 10 μm. However, the majority of the microcracks appear to arrest at about 150 μm. This behaviour is discussed in terms of the predicted threshold stress intensity for crack nucleation, uranium metallurgy, and the possible effects of crack coalescence on growth.

Fundamentals of the Physical Metallurgy of Uranium, Plutonium, and Their Alloys

Fundamentals of the physical metallurgy of uranium, plutonium, and other metals of the actinide series and alloys based on them created by A. A. Bochvar and developed by his disciples are presented.

The solid-state properties of uranium A historical perspective and review

Abstract We review our current understanding of the mechanical, electronic and structural properties of the element uranium, with the focus on the low-temperature regime in which the α-phase is stable. We start with a historical perspective, as the need for understanding the metallurgy of uranium so that its use as a nuclear fuel in the late 1940s could be optimized led to an increasing number of experiments aimed at exploring the solid-state properties. This was further accelerated when single crystals became available in the 1950s and when the superconductivity of the low-temperature α phase became the subject of controversy in the 1960s. The late 1960s and 1970s saw a considerable effort towards understanding the nature of the 5f electrons around the uranium nucleus. The increasing availability of sophisticated methods in computational physics first showed in the 1970s that the 5f electrons should be treated as itinerant, and the decade ended with the observation (by neutron diffraction) of a subtle pe...

Handbook of Atomic Elements

"Handbook of Atomic Elements." Nuclear Technology, 10(2), p. 238 Additional informationNotes on contributorsAdrian H. DaaneAdrian H. Daane received his BS from the University of Florida in 1941, then worked in the Manhattan Project on uranium metallurgy and alloy systems at Iowa State University. Upon receiving his PhD from Iowa State University in 1950 he became member of its Department of Chemistry and of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission’s Ames Laboratory. In 1963 he was appointed head of the Department of Chemistry at Kansas State University. His research interests are the preparation of rare-earth metals, the properties of these metals, and the vapor pressures of metals and alloy systems.

Uranium, Vol. 8, Metallurgy of the Rarer Metals

"Uranium, Vol. 8, Metallurgy of the Rarer Metals." Nuclear Science and Engineering, 20(2), pp. 246–247 Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn M. GooginAbout the Reviewer: John M. Googin is actively engaged, at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, in the production of components for nucledr systems, including shields as well as fuel elements. He has had twenty years of experience in the chemistry and metallurgy of uranium and its alloys, as well as lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, tungsten and thorium. He designed the first large-scale zirconium-hafnium separation plant.

The metallurgy of uranium

This review gives general information on the history of the development and the modern state of uranium metallurgy outside the Soviet Union. There is a brief description based on practice in the USA) of methods for producing metallic uranium. The article deals with the production of the starting materials (UO2, UF4), the theory and practice of magnesium-thermic reduction and the process for refining the heat. There is a discussion of the problem of obtaining metal from uranium hexafluoride, enriched and poor in U235 isotope. In conclusion, there is a discussion of the possibilities for development in uranium metallurgy.

Aspects of the metallurgy of uranium and constructional metals

On the basis of foreign material presented at the Second International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy (Geneva, 1958), we examine aspects of uranium production (reductive melting, casting, pressure treatment, and powder metallurgy); zirconium metallurgy (new data on the technological scheme, the nature of sponge and the dimensions of ingots); the production of the new constructional metals, niobium and vanadium (comparison of various methods for their preparation; metallothermal, vacuum carbo-thermal, electrolytic refining and the quality of production); the production of thin-walled beryllium tubes for fuel element sheaths; the use of zirconium hydride as a moderator and of zirconium-uranium-hydrogen alloys for fuel element cores.

Project Sherwood . The U.S. program in controlled fusion. Amasa Bishop. 228 pp. $5.75. The Transuranium Elements . Glenn T. Seaborg. 354 pp. $7. U.S. Research Reactor Operation and Use . Joel W. Chastain, Jr., Ed. 384 pp. $7.50. Radiation Biology and Medicine . Selected reviews in the life sciences. Walter D. Claus, Ed. 968 pp. $11.50. Uranium Ore Processing

<i>Project Sherwood</i> . The U.S. program in controlled fusion. Amasa Bishop. 228 pp. $5.75. <i>The Transuranium Elements</i> . Glenn T. Seaborg. 354 pp. $7. <i>U.S. Research Reactor Operation and Use</i> . Joel W. Chastain, Jr., Ed. 384 pp. $7.50. <i>Radiation Biology and Medicine</i> . Selected reviews in the life sciences. Walter D. Claus, Ed. 968 pp. $11.50. <i>Uranium Ore Processing</i>

POWDER METALLURGY IN NUCLEAR ENGINEERING

Powder metallurgy proves to be a most useful metallurgical technique for the fabrication of nuclear reactor components, especially for fuel elements. The variables which control the powder metallurgy of uranium, thorium, beryllium and zirconium and the oxides of some of these materials, are well under control. Powder metallurgy is the only technique which permits fabrication of the so.called matrix-type fuel elements, the core of which consists of a cermet material, usually with UO2 particles dispersed in a metallic matrix.The advantages which powder metallurgy has to offer in nuclear engineering are especially the small grain structure of some of the sintered products and the random distribution of point defects in the crystal lattices. The ability of powder metallurgical products to bond well to other metals is also superior to that of metals made by a more conventional technique-a fact which is of importance with respect to the heat transfer problems occurring in nuclear reactors.New powder metallurgy methods, such as powder densification by the rolling technique or metal powder slip casting, offer many advantages in nuclear engineering.

The Powder Metallurgy of Uranium

Uranium powder can readily be prepared by hydriding solid uranium and by the decomposition of the hydride. The powder particles are of –325 mesh size. This powder compacts to density varying betwee...

Harvey C. Rentschler

Harvey C. Rentschler, director of research for the Westinghouse Electric Company's lamp division in Bloomfield until his retirement in 1947, died on March 23, at the age of sixty‐eight. In 1922, Dr. Rentschler and John W. Marden refined samples of uranium metal from uranium salts in order to determine the suitability of that metal as a substitute for tungsten lamp filaments. Although the melting point of uranium proved to be far too low for use in filaments, the knowledge of uranium metallurgy thus gained made the Westinghouse lamp laboratory for a number of years the sole producer of the pure uranium used in early experimental work. In 1942 the laboratory was able to increase its uranium production from a few ounces to over five hundred pounds a day and supplied more than three tons of uranium for the first Chicago pile. Dr. Rentschler was a professor of physics for nine years at the University of Missouri before joining the Westinghouse research laboratories in 1917. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Optical Society of America.