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Actinide alloys; Americium; Metal-base fuel; Metal castings; Metallurgical furnaces; Nuclear fuel rods; Transmutation (Chemistry)
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Full-Text Articles in Nuclear Engineering
Design And Analysis Of A Process For Melt Casting Metallic Fuel Pins Incorporating Volatile Actinides, Yitung Chen, Randy Clarksean, Darrell Pepper
Design And Analysis Of A Process For Melt Casting Metallic Fuel Pins Incorporating Volatile Actinides, Yitung Chen, Randy Clarksean, Darrell Pepper
Fuels Campaign (TRP)
After considering the heating mechanisms, casting issues, crucible design and issues related to the mass transport of americium, an ISM system was selected for melting the feedstock and casting fuel pins containing high vapor pressure actinides (americium). The finite element commercial software (FIDAP) was used to simulate the induction melting process and the casting process. Phase change is considered both in the heating and in the solidification process. Various factors and properties are studied, such as boundary conditions and initial conditions, output current, frequency of the current, main dimensions of the system, mold preheating temperature, heat transfer coefficient and mold …
Design And Analysis Of A Process For Melt Casting Metallic Fuel Pins Incorporating Volatile Actinides, Yitung Chen, Darrell Pepper, Randy Clarksean
Design And Analysis Of A Process For Melt Casting Metallic Fuel Pins Incorporating Volatile Actinides, Yitung Chen, Darrell Pepper, Randy Clarksean
Fuels Campaign (TRP)
The goal of this project is to investigate the casting processes for metallic fuels to help design a process that minimizes the loss of the volatile actinide elements from the fuel. The research effort centers on the development of advanced numerical models to assess conditions that significantly impact the transport of volatile actinides during the melt casting process and represents a joint effort between researchers at UNLV and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). Assessing critical equipment and process variables is required to build a successful system that will operate efficiently.