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 164 Uranium dioxide (UO2) is a prime commercial nuclear fuel and uranium silicide (U3Si2) is considered as a new fuel for the existing LWR fleet.While nuclear fuel operates at high to very high temperatures, thermal conductivity and other materials properties lack sensitivity to temperature variations and to material variations at reactor temperatures, especially related to defect, impurities and grain boundary scattering.These variations need to be characterized as they will afford the highest predictive capability in modeling and offer best assurances for validation and verification at all temperatures. Project Description: Nearly 20% of the world’s elec- tricity today is generated by nuclear energy from UO2 fuel.The thermal conductivity of the fuel governs the conversion of heat produced from fission events into electricity and it is an important parameter in reactor design and safety.Therefore better understanding of scattering mecha- nisms, especially grain boundary scattering is of paramount interest of nuclear energy research. In order to better understand the impact of grain boundary scattering on the thermal conductivity of UO2 and to estimate how much heat is carried by electrons and lattice vibrations in U3Si2, we have initiated and performed extensive thermal transport measure- ments of these materials. Uranium silicide, U3Si2, has been considered as a new fuel for the existing Light Water Reactor fleet.This uranium intermetallic has a number of advanta- geous thermophysical properties that support its use as an accident tolerant fuel. Because of its high thermal conductivity, U3Si2 can operate at a much lower temperature and experi- ences lower thermal gradients than UO2.The thermal conductivity of the UO2 and U3Si2 samples have been measured at INL using direct pulse-power “one heater two ther- mometers” method implemented in ThermalTransport Option (TTO) on the Quantum Design Physical Proper- ties Measurement System (PPMS).The results have been compared to high temperature measurements performed by C. Papesch (INL) and theoretical modeling done byY. Zhang (INL). Accomplishments: In order to identify which scat- tering mechanisms are important in nuclear fuels we performed a series of thermal conductivity measurements on selected samples of UO2 and U3Si2. The UO2 samples were synthesized having different grain sizes and the Fundamental Property Measurements Supporting NEAMS Validation Principal Investigator: Krzysztof Gofryk Collaborators: C. Papesch,Y. Zhang, J. Harp, and J. Lien 500#nm# 2#µm# 5#µm# (a)# (c)# (b)# Figure 1. The electron microscope pictures of the UO2 samples with different grain sizes measured in these studies.