Thermal Energy Transport in Oxide Nuclear Fuel
arXiv:2204.13236 · doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.1c00262
Abstract
To efficiently capture the energy of the nuclear bond, advanced nuclear reactor concepts seek solid fuels that must withstand unprecedented temperature and radiation extremes. In these advanced fuels, thermal energy transport under irradiation is directly related to reactor performance as well as reactor safety. The science of thermal transport in nuclear fuel is a grand challenge due to both computational and experimental complexities. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of thermal transport research on two actinide oxides: one currently in use in commercial nuclear reactors, uranium dioxide (UO2), and one advanced fuel candidate material, thorium dioxide (ThO2). In both materials, heat is carried by lattice waves or phonons. Crystalline defects caused by fission events effectively scatter phonons and lead to a degradation in fuel performance over time. Bolstered by new computational and experimental tools, researchers are now developing the foundational work necessary to accurately model and ultimately control thermal transport in advanced nuclear fuel. We begin by reviewing research aimed at understanding thermal transport in perfect single crystals. The absence of defects enables studies that focus on the fundamental aspects of phonon transport. Next, we review research that targets defect generation and evolution. Here, the focus is on ion irradiation studies used as surrogates for damage caused by fission products. We end this review with a discussion of modeling and experimental efforts directed at predicting and validating mesoscale thermal transport in the presence of irradiation defects. While efforts into these research areas have been robust, challenging work remains in developing holistic tools to capture and predict thermal energy transport across widely varying environmental conditions.
arXiv commentPublication Date: December 17, 2021
References in corpus (59)
- Phonons and related properties of extended systems from density-functional perturbation theory
- Electronic Structure Calculations with Dynamical Mean-Field Theory: A Spectral Density Functional Approach
- Continuous-time Monte Carlo methods for quantum impurity models
- Distribution of phonon lifetime in Brillouin zone
- Computational complexity and fundamental limitations to fermionic quantum Monte Carlo simulations
- Giant Anharmonic Phonon Scattering in PbTe
- Quantum Monte Carlo Impurity Solver for Cluster DMFT and Electronic Structure Calculations in Adjustable Base
- Quantum mechanical prediction of four-phonon scattering rates and reduced thermal conductivity of solids
- The metal-insulator transitions of VO2: A band theoretical approach
- Role of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in high-resolution core-level spectroscopy of actinide materials
- The chemical state of complex uranium oxides
- Ab initio variational approach for evaluating lattice thermal conductivity
- The one-dimensional Hubbard model: A reminiscence
- Triple-q octupolar ordering in NpO_2
- Correlated metallic state of vanadium dioxide
- Simulation of thermal conductivity and heat transport in solids
- Free energy from stationary implementation of the DFT+DMFT functional
- Phonon-Phonon Interactions in Strongly Bonded Solids: Selection Rules and Higher-Order Processes
- The role of lighter and heavier embedded nanoparticles on the thermal conductivity of SiGe alloys
- Positrons in Surface Physics
- Ab initio Green-Kubo Approach for the Thermal Conductivity of Solids
- Analytical Models of Phonon-Point Defect Scattering
- Intrinsic Localized Modes Observed in the High Temperature Vibrational Spectrum of NaI
- Direct observation of electric-quadrupolar order in UO
- Effective action approach to strongly correlated fermion systems
- The Valence-Fluctuating Ground State of Plutonium
- Origin of Low Thermal Conductivity in Nuclear Fuels
- Phonon spectrum, thermodynamic properties, and pressure-temperature phase diagram of uranium dioxide
- Total energy calculations using DFT+DMFT: computing the pressure phase diagram of the rare earth nickelates
- Computing total energies in complex materials using charge self-consistent DFT+DMFT
- Exceptionally strong phonon scattering by B substitution in cubic SiC
- Thermodynamic properties and structural stability of thorium dioxide
- Mind the gap but also the spin: why the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof hybrid functional description of VO2 phases is not correct
- Transient grating spectroscopy: An ultrarapid, nondestructive materials evaluation technique
- Strong damping of phononic heat current by magnetic excitations in SrCu_2(BO_3)_2
- Slave Boson Theory of Orbital Differentiation with Crystal Field Effects: Application to UO
- Theoretical unification of hybrid-DFT and DFT+U methods for the treatment of localized orbitals
- Microscopic theory of the insulating electronic ground states of actinide dioxides AnO2 (An=U, Np, Pu, Am, and Cm)
- Phonon Density of States and Anharmonicity of UO2
- Parametrization of LSDA+ for noncollinear magnetic configurations: Multipolar magnetism in UO
- Crystal field and magnetic structure of UO
- Mott Transition and Magnetism in Rare Earth Nickelates and its Fingerprint on the X-ray Scattering
- Electronic structure and core-level spectra of light actinide dioxides in the dynamical mean-field theory
- A perturbative approach to J mixing in f-electron systems: Application to actinide dioxides
- Multipolar, magnetic and vibrational lattice dynamics in the low temperature phase of uranium dioxide
- First-principles Calculation of Atomic Forces and Structural Distortions in Strongly Correlated Materials
- First-Principles Theory of Multipolar Order in Neptunium Dioxide
- The application of HEXS and HERFD XANES for accurate structural characterization of actinide nanomaterials: application to ThO2
- High-precision molecular dynamics simulation of UO2-PuO2: superionic transition in uranium dioxide
- The grain-size effect on thermal conductivity of uranium dioxide
- Nanoscale Oxygen Defect Gradients in the Actinide Oxides
- Quadrupolar Superexchange Interactions, Multipolar Order and Magnetic Phase Transition in UO
- A group theoretical approach to computing phonons and their interactions
- Calculation of Multipolar Exchange Interactions in Spin-Orbital Coupled Systems
- Large effects of subtle electronic correlations on the energetics of vacancies in alpha-Fe
- Crystal dynamics and thermal properties of neptunium dioxide
- Study of phonons in irradiated epitaxial thin films of UO
- One-Electron Physics of the Actinides
- Interaction between U/UO2 bilayers and hydrogen studied by in-situ X-ray diffraction
Cited by in corpus (7)
- Synchrotron Radiation Techniques and their Application to Actinide Materials
- Advances in actinide thin films: synthesis, properties, and future directions
- Phonon thermal transport in UO via self-consistent perturbation theory
- Implications of phonon anisotropy on thermal conductivity of fluorite oxides
- Phonon modal analysis of thermal transport in ThO2 with point defects using equilibrium molecular dynamics
- Parameterizing empirical interatomic potentials for predicting thermophysical properties via an irreducible derivative approach: the case of ThO and UO
- Thermal Transport in Defective Uranium Nitride: Effects of Point Defects, Anharmonicity, and Electronic Contributions