Thermal conductivity of minor actinide nitride fuels

Nishi, Tsuyoshi; Takano, Masahide ; Arai, Yasuo; Kurata, Masaki 

By installing the laser flash apparatus and the drop calorimeter in the glove box, the thermal diffusivity and the heat capacity measurements of nitride containing MA elements of long-lived radioactive nuclides were enabled. The sample holder and the platinum container were designed to measure the thermal diffusivity and the heat capacity of very small quantity of MA nitride samples. The thermal conductivities of MA nitride increased with temperature, unlike that of conventional oxide-type nuclear fuels. In addition, the thermal conductivities of MA nitride decreased with increasing Am contents. The thermal conductivity of ZrN-based MA nitride, which is proposed as a candidate material for the ADS fuel, was fitted to equations as functions of the temperature and ZrN concentration. The predicted values agreed well with the experimental ones, indicating that the thermal conductivity of nitride fuel for ADS can be predicted for a practical design.