Atomistic Ordering in Body Centered Cubic Uranium-Zirconium Alloy

MRS Online Proceedings Library volume 1514, Article number: 27 (2013) Cite this article

Abstract

The metallic binary-alloy fuel Uranium-Zirconium is important for the use of the new generation of advanced fast reactors. Uranium-Zirconium goes through a phase transition at higher temperatures to a (gamma) Body Centered Cubic (BCC) phase. The BCC high temperature phase is particularly important, since the BCC phase corresponds to the temperature range in which the fast reactors will operate. A semi-empirical MEAM (Modified Embedded Atom Method) potential is presented for Uranium-Zirconium. The physical properties of the Uranium-Zirconium binary alloy were reproduced using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations with the MEAM potential. This is a large step in making a computationally acceptable fuel performance code.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Nuclear and Radiological Engineering Program, George W Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 770 State Street, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Alex P Moore, Ben Beeler & Chaitanya S Deo

  2. University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Michael Baskes

  3. Los Alamos National Laboratory, PO Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

    Michael Baskes

  4. Idaho National Laboratory, PO Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415, USA

    Maria Okuniewski

Authors
  1. Alex P Moore
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  2. Ben Beeler
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  3. Michael Baskes
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  4. Maria Okuniewski
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  5. Chaitanya S Deo
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Correspondence to Alex P Moore.

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Moore, A.P., Beeler, B., Baskes, M. et al. Atomistic Ordering in Body Centered Cubic Uranium-Zirconium Alloy. MRS Online Proceedings Library 1514, 27 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2013.517

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