This paper focuses on analyses made at CEA Cadarache on seven fresh plates made of atomized particles, with or without Mo homogenization, and with ZrN coating. | Characterization of fresh EMPIrE and SEMPER FIDELIS U Mo Al fuel plates made with PVD-coated U Mo particles EPJ Nuclear Sci. Technol. 4 49 2018 Nuclear Sciences X. Iltis et al. published by EDP Sciences 2018 amp Technologies https epjn 2018048 Available online at https REGULAR ARTICLE Characterization of fresh EMPIrE and SEMPER FIDELIS U Mo Al fuel plates made with PVD-coated U Mo particles Xavière Iltis1 Hervé Palancher1 Jérôme Allenou2 Florence Vanni2 Bertrand Stepnik2 Ann Leenaers3 Sven Van Den Berghe3 Dennis D. Keiser4 and Irina Glagolenko4 1 CEA DEN DEC Cadarache 13108 Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance France 2 FRAMATOME CERCA SPL ZI Les Bérauds 54 avenue de la déportation BP 1114 26104 Romans-sur-Isère France 3 SCK-CEN Nuclear Material Science Institute Boeretang 200 2400 Mol Belgium 4 Idaho National Laboratory Nuclear Fuels and Materials Division . Box 1625 Idaho Falls ID 83415-6188 USA Received 17 May 2018 Accepted 12 September 2018 Abstract. The HERACLES group and the US-DOE work jointly to develop dispersed U Mo Al as LEU fuel for conversion of high performance nuclear research reactors. Within this frame two irradiation programs are in progress. In the first EMPIrE mini-plates are tested in the ATR reactor USA and in the second SEMPER FIDELIS full-size plates are irradiated in BR2 Belgium . In both experiments U Mo Al plates with optimized microstructure are tested under high duty conditions. This paper focuses on analyses made at CEA Cadarache on seven fresh plates made of atomized particles with or without Mo homogenization and with ZrN coating. Five EMPIrE mini-plates and two SEMPER FIDELIS full-size plates were examined by optical microscopy OM scanning electron microscopy SEM and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy EDS . A particular attention is paid to the integrity of the ZrN coating thickness cracks and to the U Mo particles microstructure. 1 Introduction Verifying the benefits of a homogenization heat treatment followed .
