Determination of the degree of grain refinement in irradiated U-Mo fuels

Abstract

A simple, repeatable method for determination of the degree of grain refinement in irradiated Uranium-Molybdenum fuels has been developed. This method involves mechanical potting and polishing of samples along with examination using a scanning electron microscope located outside of a hot cell. The commercially available software package Mathematica was used to determine the degree of grain refinement by way of a built-in iterative active contour method of image segmentation. Baseline methods for degree of grain refinement assessment are suggested for consideration and further development.

Keywords

• Materials science
• Nuclear engineering