Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132 Page 133 Page 134 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 138 Page 139 Page 140 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145 Page 146 Page 147 Page 148 Page 149 Page 150 Page 151 Page 152 Page 153 Page 154 Page 155 Page 156 Page 157 Page 158 Page 159 Page 160 Page 161 Page 162 Page 163 Page 164 Page 165 Page 166 Page 167 Page 168 Page 169 Page 170 Page 171 Page 172 Page 173 Page 174 Page 175 Page 176 Page 177 Page 178 Page 179 Page 180 Page 181 Page 182 Page 183 Page 184 Page 185 Page 186 Page 187 Page 188 Page 189 Page 190 Page 191 Page 192 Page 193 Page 194 Page 195 Page 196 Page 197 Page 198 Page 199 Page 200 Page 201 Page 202 Page 203 Page 204 Page 205 Page 206 Page 207 Page 208 Page 209 Page 210 Page 211 Page 212 Page 213 Page 214 Page 215 Page 216 Page 217 Page 218 Page 219 Page 220 Page 221 Page 222 Page 223 Page 224 Page 225 Page 226 Page 227 Page 228 Page 229 Page 230 Page 231 Page 232 Page 233 Page 234 Page 235 Page 236 Page 237 Page 238 Page 239 Page 240 Page 241 Page 2422016 | AFC ACCOMPLISHMENTS 151 Project Description: An experiment was developed to cast fuel into an integral Zr barrier using the glovebox advanced casting system (GACS). This system is designed to cast three slugs approximately 4.2 mm diameter by 250 mm in length. A charge of U-6Zr was cast successfully into the rolled Zr sheaths. Three different zirconium foil thicknesses were used for the experiment, 125 µm, 50 µm, and 12 µm in order to determine the lower limit of thickness that could be used. The foils were loaded into the conical two-piece GACS mold. The mold was heated to approxi- mately 700°C at the top and upper portion while the lower portion was heated to approximately 415°C.The uranium and zirconium were placed in a yttria coated graphite crucible positioned above the mold. The crucible was heated to 1500°C and held for approximately 13 minutes. After the hold time was accomplished the stopper rod was lifted from the crucible allowing it to drain into the mold. After casting each fuel slug was sectioned for metallographic exami- nation in order to determine the amount of melt/sheath interaction. The second set of experiments was conducted using the arc casting method. The arc casting equipment is designed to cast items of a smaller batch size, consequently the size of slug mold was approximately 5 mm x 75 mm, which is more prototypic of fuel irradiation test specimens. For these experiments a charge of U-10Zr was prepared through standard arc melting techniques. The foil was loaded into a quartz mold 5 mm in diameter by 89 mm in length.The foil thickness was 25 µm. The resulting cast product was removed from the quartz mold, and section for both radial and longitudinal examination using an optical microscope. Two separate methods were used to produce and load the foil sheaths into the quartz molds. The first technique simply hand rolled the foil prior to loading into the quartz, after loading an attempt was made to smooth the foil using a cotton swab. Despite attempts to smooth the foil, due to the nature of the thin foil a completely smooth sheath could not be produced. The second experiment rolled the foil tightly around an undersized steel mandrel, which was then inserted into the quartz tube. The mandrel was then removed and the foil allowed to spring back against the quartz tube. In this experiment the foil was left 2-3 mm long on the top edge and was then folded down around the outside of the quartz mold.After casting this fuel sample was also sectioned radially and longitudinally for optical microscopy. Experiments have shown that casting into an integral FCCI barrier made of rolled zirconium foil is definitely feasible