UNDERSTANDING THE CAUSE OF PELLET FRACTURE DURING PRODUCTION OF PU-238 OXIDE HEAT SOURCES THROUGH THE COUPLING OF EXPERIMENTATION AND MODEL DEVELOPMENT

摘要

A comprehensive effort is underway at Los Alamos National Laboratory to understand the causes and mechanisms behind pellet failure due to cracking during the production of ~(238)PuO_2 heat sources. To this end, the PUMA (Plutonium Modeling and Assessment) code is being developed based on the MOOSE framework. Concurrent with PUMA model development is an experimental campaign using CeO_2 surrogate material which seeks to measure and understand the relevant material properties and behavior for incorporation in PUMA. The synergistic nature of this approach has led to a rapid increase in understanding of many of the fundamental mechanisms important to pellet fracture. These surrogate studies will be used to inform future studies using non-surrogate PuO: materials.