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ORNL-2106 - the Molten Salt Energy Technologies Web Site

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ANP PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT<br />

The as-received LindsayMix is composed of very<br />

fine particles about 1p in size. Dry mixing of <strong>the</strong><br />

Lindsay Mix and carbonyl nickel powders in an<br />

oblique blender resulted in segregation and lumping<br />

of <strong>the</strong> rare-earth oxide particles. A satisfactory<br />

dispersion of <strong>the</strong> oxide and carbonyl nickel pow-<br />

ders could be obtained only by wet milling.<br />

One section of a control rod core has been fabri-<br />

cated by hot-pressing a cylinder of 36.9 vol %<br />

Lindsay Mix-63.1 vol 75 carbonyl nickel to a den-<br />

sity of 887% of <strong>the</strong>oretical. Additional extrusions gen contamination.<br />

of Lindsay Mix-nickel cores clad with ei<strong>the</strong>r<br />

or lnconel are planned.<br />

Nb-UOZ FUEL ELEMENTS<br />

V. M. Kolba H. lnouye<br />

J. P. Page<br />

Commercially available niobium powder is of poor<br />

quality, and <strong>the</strong>refore attempts were made to pro-<br />

duce high-purity powder from wrought niobium sheet<br />

for use in fabrication studies on NbUO, fuel mn-<br />

ponents. The niobium sheet was hydrided, crushed,<br />

and ball milled to 100-mesh powder. This powder<br />

was <strong>the</strong>n leached to remove iron contamination<br />

from <strong>the</strong> ball milling and <strong>the</strong>n vacuum annealed at<br />

800°C to remove hydrogen. A Bergsman microhard-<br />

ness determination on this powder gave a result of<br />

-317 VHN. Fur<strong>the</strong>r vacuum annealing at llOO°C<br />

lowered <strong>the</strong> hardness to “290 VHN, which was<br />

still quite high and indicative of oxygen and nitro-<br />

A second<br />

was made to produce powder by<br />

using cold-rolled niobium plate and repeating <strong>the</strong><br />

hydriding, crushing, and vacuum-annealing treat-<br />

ments. A polished section of particles of this pow-<br />

der is shown in Fig. 3.3.7, on which <strong>the</strong> hardness<br />

was found to be “193 VHN. Small inclusions may<br />

be seen in <strong>the</strong> matrix, which indicate some degree<br />

of contamination, Samples of both batches of POW-<br />

der are being analyzed for comparison with <strong>the</strong><br />

Fig. 3.3.7. Microstructure and Hardness of Niobium Powder Produced from Wrought Plate. SOOX. Re-<br />

duced 3.5%.<br />

1 72

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