Intrinsic factors responsible for brittle versus ductile nature of refractory high-entropy alloys

Tsuru, Tomohito; Han, S.*; Matsuura, Shutaro*; Chen, Z.*; Kishida, Kyosuke; Lobzenko, I.; Rao, S.*; Woodward, C.*; George, E.*; Inui, Haruyuki*

Nature Communications (Internet), 15, p.1706_1 - 1706_10, 2024/02

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45639-8

Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) have attracted attention because of their potential for use in ultrahigh-temperature applications. Unfortunately, their body-centered-cubic (BCC) crystal structures make them more brittle than the ductile and fracture-resistant face-centered-cubic (FCC) HEAs. RHEAs also display significantly lower creep strengths than a leading Ni-base superalloy and its FCC matrix. To overcome these drawbacks and develop RHEAs into viable structural materials, improved fundamental understanding is needed of factors that control strength and ductility. Here we investigate two model RHEAs, TiZrHfNbTa and VNbMoTaW, and show that the former is plastically compressible down to 77 K, whereas the latter is not below 298 K. We find that hexagonal close-packed (HCP) elements in TiZrHfNbTa lower its dislocation core energy, increase its lattice distortion, and lower its shear modulus relative to VNbMoTaW whose elements are all BCC, leading to the formers higher ductility and modulus-normalized yield strength. Consistent with our yield strength models, primarily screw dislocations are present in TiZrHfNbTa after deformation, but equal numbers of edge and screw segments in VNbTaMoW. Dislocation cores are compact in VNbTaMoW and extended in TiZrHfNbTa, and different macroscopic slip planes are activated in the two RHEAs, which we attribute to the concentration of HCP elements. Our findings demonstrate how electronic structure changes related to the ratio of HCP to BCC elements can be used to control strength, ductility, and slip behavior to develop the next generation of high-temperature materials for more efficient power plants and transportation.

Development of "MOX weighing and Ball-mill blending" based on experience in operation and maintenance of MOX fuel manufacturing equipment

Kawasaki, Kohei; Ono, Takanori; Shibanuma, Kimikazu; Goto, Kenta; Aita, Takahiro; Okamoto, Naritoshi; Shinada, Kenta; Ichige, Hidekazu; Takase, Tatsuya; Osaka, Yuki; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2022-031, 91 Pages, 2023/02

JAEA-Technology-2022-031.pdf:6.57MB

The document for back-end policy opened to the public in 2018 by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (hereafter, JAEA) states the decommissioning of facilities of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories and JAEA have started gathering up nuclear fuel material of the facilities into Plutonium Fuel Production Facilities (hereafter, PFPF) in order to put it long-term, stable and safe storage. Because we planned to manufacture scrap assemblies almost same with Monju fuel assembly using unsealed plutonium-uranium mixed-oxide (hereafter, MOX) powder held in PFPF and transfer them to storage facilities as part of this "concentration" task of nuclear fuel material, we obtained permission to change the use of nuclear fuel material in response to the new regulatory Requirements in Japan for that. The amount of plutonium (which is neither sintered pellets nor in a lidded powder-transport container) that could be handled in the pellet-manufacturing process was limited to 50 kg Pu or less in order to decrease the facility risk in this manufacture. Therefore, we developed and installed the "MOX weighing and blending equipment" corresponding with small batch sizes that functioned in a starting process and the equipment would decrease handling amounts of plutonium on its downstream processes. The failure data based on our operation and maintenance experiences of MOX fuel production facilities was reflected in the design of the equipment to further improve reliability and maintainability in this development. The completed equipment started its operation using MOX powder in February 2022 and the design has been validated through this half-a-year operation. This report organizes the knowledge obtained through the development of the equipment, the evaluation of the design based on the half-a-year operation results and the issues in future equipment development.

Preliminary measurement of prompt gamma-ray from nuclear material for the classification of fuel debris and waste

Shiba, Tomooki; Kaburagi, Masaaki; Nomi, Takayoshi; Suzuki, Risa; Kosuge, Yoshihiro*; Nauchi, Yasushi*; Takada, Akira*; Nagatani, Taketeru; Okumura, Keisuke

Proceedings of International Topical Workshop on Fukushima Decommissioning Research (FDR2022) (Internet), 3 Pages, 2022/10

Quantum critical spin-liquid-like behavior in the = quasikagome-lattice compound CeRhPdSn investigated using muon spin relaxation and neutron scattering

Tripathi, R.*; Adroja, D. T.*; Ritter, C.*; Sharma, S.*; Yang, C.*; Hillier, A. D.*; Koza, M. M.*; Demmel, F.*; Sundaresan, A.*; Langridge, S.*; et al.

Physical Review B, 106(6), p.064436_1 - 064436_17, 2022/08

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.106.064436

XAFS analysis of ruthenium in simulated iron phosphate radioactive waste glass

Okamoto, Yoshihiro; Kobayashi, Hidekazu; Shiwaku, Hideaki; Sasage, Kenichi; Hatakeyama, Kiyoshi*; Nagai, Takayuki

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 551, p.120393_1 - 120393_8, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2020.120393

The chemical state of ruthenium in simulated iron phosphate radioactive waste glass was investigated by conventional X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) and imaging XAFS analyses. The EXAFS analysis suggested that ruthenium was contained as glass phase when content of the waste components was less than 10wt.% in 30 mol%FeO-PO base glass. In other samples, crystalline RuO was predominant. According to the imaging XAFS analysis, RuO particles in all samples had length smaller than 50m. Aggregations of RuO, which are found in nuclear waste borosilicate glass, were not seen in any of the iron phosphate glass samples.

Competition between allowed and first-forbidden decay; The Case of Hg Tl

Carroll, R. J.*; Podolyk, Zs.*; Berry, T.*; Grawe, H.*; Alexander, T.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Ansari, S.*; Borge, M. J. G.*; Brunet, M.*; Creswell, J. R.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 125(19), p.192501_1 - 192501_6, 2020/11

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.192501

Results of the Collaborative International Evaluated Library Organisation (CIELO) Project

Fleming, M.*; Chadwick, M.*; Brown, D.*; Capote, R.*; Ge, Z.*; Herman, M.*; Ignatyuk, A.*; Ivanova, T.*; Iwamoto, Osamu; Koning, A.*; et al.

EPJ Web of Conferences, 239, p.15003_1 - 15003_5, 2020/09

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202023915003

The Joint evaluated fission and fusion nuclear data library, JEFF-3.3

Plompen, A. J. M.*; Cabellos, O.*; De Saint Jean, C.*; Fleming, M.*; Algora, A.*; Angelone, M.*; Archier, P.*; Bauge, E.*; Bersillon, O.*; Blokhin, A.*; et al.

European Physical Journal A, 56(7), p.181_1 - 181_108, 2020/07

https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-020-00141-9

The Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion nuclear data library 3.3 is described. New evaluations for neutron-induced interactions with the major actinides U, U and Pu, on Am and Na, Ni, Cr, Cu, Zr, Cd, Hf, W, Au, Pb and Bi are presented. It includes new fission yileds, prompt fission neutron spectra and average number of neutrons per fission. In addition, new data for radioactive decay, thermal neutron scattering, gamma-ray emission, neutron activation, delayed neutrons and displacement damage are presented. JEFF-3.3 was complemented by files from the TENDL project. The libraries for photon, proton, deuteron, triton, helion and alpha-particle induced reactions are from TENDL-2017. The demands for uncertainty quantification in modeling led to many new covariance data. A comparison between results from model calculations using the JEFF-3.3 library and those from benchmark experiments for criticality, delayed neutron yields, shielding and decay heat, reveals that JEFF-3.3 is excellent for a wide range of nuclear technology applications, in particular nuclear energy.

-decay properties of Fr

Ghys, L.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Huyse, M.*; Van Duppen, P.*; Antalic, S.*; Barzakh, A.*; Capponi, L.*; Cocolios, T. E.*; Cubiss, J.*; Derkx, X.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 100(5), p.054310_1 - 054310_13, 2019/11

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.100.054310

Investigation of the = 0 selection rule in Gamow-Teller transitions; The -decay of Hg

Berry, T. A.*; Podolyk, Zs.*; Carroll, R. J.*; Lic, R.*; Grawe, H.*; Timofeyuk, N. K.*; Alexander, T.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Ansari, S.*; Borge, M. J. G.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 793, p.271 - 275, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2019.04.039