2018 | AFC ACCOMPLISHMENTS 128 Following the success of a segmented billet the extrusion of an annular U-10Zr tube was performed.As with the previous extrusions, a standard U-10Zr billet was extruded and machined.Annular extrusion billets incorporate a central hole through the billet. During the extrusion process a mandrel, which is connected to the extrusion stem, is passed through the billet and is long enough to also pass through the extrusion die.As the material is extruded it passes over this mandrel forming the central hole.A vendor supplied extrusion tooling stack up schematic is presented in Figure 2.The billet assembly was heated to 800°C and the extrusion performed using an 8 mm die and 6 mm mandrel, dimensions are approximate. During the extrusion process no anomalies in the extrusion force were noted, however, after the Annular U-10Zr fuel has been successfully produced through extrusion. Section ID Length (mm) Center Diameter (mm- 0°) Center Diameter (mm- 90°) 1 255.57 5.96 5.96 2 258.75 5.93 5.92 3 257.18 5.91 5.89 4 255.57 5.87 5.91 5 257.18 5.77 5.75 6 258.75 5.80 5.71 7 258.75 5.72 5.83 8 258.75 5.63 5.70 9 257.18 5.69 5.79 10 255.57 5.62 5.71 11 257.18 5.63 5.70 12 174.63 5.56 5.46 Table 1. Length and diameter of the extruded segmented U-10Zr rod. extrusion was finished it was observed that the mandrel had broken during the extrusion process. Despite the broken mandrel a section of annular U-10Zr tubing was produced. Figure 3 shows the cross section of the annular product.The reason for the mandrel breakage is still under investigation. Forces on the extrusion press were well within historical amounts seen for other extrusions.This shows that extrusion of an annular product is feasible, although some tooling optimization is necessary. In addition to tooling optimization to produce longer annular sections, follow on work will include extrusion of zirconium clad products, and reduction of the zirconium thickness allow it to be used as a fuel clad chemical interaction barrier, and characterization of the cast products.