INVESTIGATION OF URANIUM AND ZIRCONIUM BASED SOLID SOLUTIONS
Olga S. Bukina, А. Д. Гречаник, Yernat A. Kozhakhmetov, I. M. Kukushkin, Yu. Yu. Baklanova · NNC RK Bulletin · 2020
In the IAE Branch RSE NNC RK at the VCG-135 test-bench within the framework of the commercial projects and scientific and technical program entitled “Study of the corium prototype properties of various compositions” small-scale experiments are carried out to obtain corium prototypes of various compositions. Physical and mechanical properties, phase and elemental composition of corium prototype samples resulted from high-temperature experiments on test-benches are being investigated based on the Material Testing Department. The work was aimed at identifying solid solutions based on uranium and zirconium dioxides in the phase composition of corium, obtained at different temperatures at the VCG-135 test-bench. One of the main issues is to develop a method for describing solid solutions as components of phase composition. The article provides a method and results of determining the density, studies of the structural and phase properties of corium samples using scanning electron microscopy (VEGA 3 LMH, TESCAN) and diffractometry (Empyrean, PANalytical).