Thermal Compatibility of High Density U-Mo Powder Fuels Prepared by Centrifugal Atomization

Samples of extruded dispersions of 24 vol.% spherical U-2wt%Mo and U-10wt.%Mo powders in an aluminum matrix were annealed for over 2,000 hours at 40$0^{\circ}C$. No significant dimensional changes occurred in the U-1025.%Mo/aluminum dispersions. The U-2wt.%Mo/aluminum dispersion, however, increased in volume by 26% after 2,000 hours at 40$0^{\circ}C$. This large volume change is mainly due to the formation of voids and cracks resulting from nearly complete interdiffusion of U-Mo and aluminum. Interdiffusion between U-10wt.%Mo and aluminum was found to be minimal. The different diffusion behavior is primarily due to the fact that U-2wt.%Mo decomposes from an as-atomized metastable r-phase(bcc) solid solution into the equilibrium r-U and U$_2$Mo two-phase structure during the experiment, whereas U-10wt.%Mo retains the metastable r-phase structure after the 2,000 hours anneal and thereby displays superior thermal compatibility with aluminum compared to U-2wt.%Mo. In addition, the molybdenium supersaturated in U-10wt.%Mo particles inhibits the diffusion of aluminum atoms along the grain boundary into the particle. Also, the dissolution of only a few Mo atoms in UAL$_3$ retards the formation of the intermediate phase, as Mo atoms need to migrate from new intermetallic compounds to unreacted islands.