Mechanical properties of fuels

Coordinated by Marie-France Barthe, CNRS (FR)

This WP focuses on improving, developing and applying experimental and modelling methods to reach a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms governing the evolution of mechanical properties of nuclear fuels. The aim is to understand and predict the evolution of these properties in GEN IV reactors and develop new thermo‐mechanical models. Fuel creep and fracture in UO2 and MOX will be particularly studied and measured. UO2 is studied as well as MOX given the scarcity of precise data on the mechanical properties of fuels and to justify the approximations of using UO2 data for MOX that are currently made in the codes. Experimental set‐ups enabling measurement of mechanical properties at high temperature, under ion‐ irradiation and neutron‐irradiation will be designed and built at CEA, CNRS/CEMHTI and HFR, respectively. The various results obtained will be confronted to determine mechanisms in WP5 and in part to obtain data and improve mechanical models for MOX fuel in WP6.