Nuclear Materials

Topics

• Review those aspects of fundamental solid state physics that are pertinent to understanding the effects of radiation on crystalline solids. Show how radiation, particularly by fast neutrons, affects the mechanical properties of fuel, cladding, and structural materials in a reactor core. Explain quantitatively the production of damage, in materials. Give an understanding of the behavior of fission products in ceramic fuel, how they are formed, how they migrate, and how they affect properties of the fuel. Develop an understanding of failure mechanism in materials and their impact in nuclear technology.
• Solve diffusion problems beginning from Fick's law; understand how the diffusion coefficient is related to the mobility of atoms in the crystalline lattice. Deal with point defects in solids; how they are produced at thermal equilibrium and by neutron irradiation; how they agglomerate to form voids in metals or grow gas bubbles in the fuel. Kinchin-Pease model. Analyze the processes of fission gas release and swelling of reactor fuel. Understand how the grain structure influences properties such as creep rate and fission product release (ceramic UO2). Understand the concept and quantitative properties of dislocations, and how irradiation-produced point defects influences their motion and hence material properties. Know the principal effects of radiation on metals: dislocation loops, voids, precipitates, and helium bubbles.

Official catalogue course objectives and student learning outcomes