Publications

Showing 27 results for Author: Matt M. Kurley III

View All publications

  • Mar, 2026

    Journal

    Physicochemical evolution of uranium nitride kernel microstructure with varying carbon distribution for advanced TRISO fuel forms

    Uranium nitride (UN) has emerged as a fuel candidate for advanced nuclear reactor concepts due to its superior uranium density, thermal conductivity, and high melting temperature. However, the fabrication route for converting UO2 to UN is complex and difficult to standardize. Although the chemistry of this conversion process is well-studied, more insight into the physicoch…

  • Aug, 2025

    Journal

    A machine learning approach to quantify degradation of nuclear fuels and the effects of fission products

    Nuclear fuel performance is critically dependent on understanding the evolution of fuel properties under operational conditions, a complex challenge driven by chemical changes and substantial radiation damage during fission. Traditionally, property evolution has been determined via empirical data collected following irradiation. However, these empirical correlations are li…

  • Aug, 2025

    Journal

    Oxygen Defect Configurations in Single-Phase UO2.15

    Hyperstoichiometric UO2.15 was characterized by neutron total scattering at high temperature in the single-phase UO2+x region of the U/O phase diagram. The diffraction data confirmed a single-phase fluorite structure at high temperature. Analysis of the short-range data showed that the same structural model does not fit the pair distribution functions well. Instead, struct…

  • Jan, 2025

    Journal

    Glassy carbon formation from pyrolysis of polymeric coatings on fiber-optic sensors

    Deploying fiber-optic sensors in nuclear reactors requires a detailed understanding of radiation effects on the fiber materials and the transmitted signals. Previous work has shown large wavelength shifts in the reflected spectra obtained from polymer-coated fiber-optic temperature sensors exposed to high neutron fluences. The sensor drift resulting from these wavelength s…

  • Jan, 2025

    Journal

    High-temperature oxidation study in a multi-oxidant environment using 18O tracer

    The goal of this study was to use 18O-enriched water to better understand the role of H2O in high-temperature oxidation. Seven model and three commercial M-Cr and M-Cr-Al alloys were studied in air with 10% of H2O at 800 °C for 5 h. Oxygen from water vapor was more reactive than oxygen from the air and 18O enriched at the outermost layers of the formed Cr- and Al-rich oxid…

  • May, 2024

    Journal

    Raman spectroscopy of uranium nitride kernels

    Uranium nitride is an advanced fuel candidate for a wide variety of advanced nuclear reactors. This work summarizes the first characterization of UN kernels by Raman spectroscopy. First-principles density functional theory calculations were performed to predict the Raman spectra of uranium sesquinitride (U2N3), uranium dinitride (UN2), uranium mononitride (UN), uranium mon…

  • Feb, 2024

    Journal

    The effect of powder feedstock and heat treatment on the thermal and mechanical properties of binder jet printed ZrC

    Zirconium carbide (ZrC) disks were fabricated using binder jet printing to study the effect of powder feedstock, print parameters, and heat treatment on flowability and final materials properties. A median volumetric particle size smaller than 10 μm was shown to cause the powder to stop flowing during printing. Disks were printed using ZrC with suitable flowability and the…

  • Jan, 2024

    Journal

    Rapid Quenching of Molten Salts as an Approach for the Coordination Characterization of Corrosion Products

    A new apparatus was built to rapidly cool molten salts in liquid argon to prevent contamination during quenching and enable new insight into the structure in the liquid state. To test the applicability of the apparatus, several industrially relevant chloride salt compositions were first melted, rapidly solidified, and then characterized. The design proved applicable for th…

  • Dec, 2023

    Journal

    Neutron Irradiation of Alloy N and 316L Stainless Steel in Contact with a Molten Chloride Salt

    Capsules containing NaCl–MgCl2 salt with 316L stainless steel or alloy N samples were irradiated in the Ohio State University Research Reactor for 21 nonconsecutive hours. A custom irradiation vessel was designed for this purpose, and details on its design and construction are given. Stainless steel samples that were irradiated during exposure had less corrosive attack tha…

  • Nov, 2023

    Journal

    Response of ZrC to swift heavy ion irradiation

    Zirconium carbide (ZrC) is commonly used for energy sector research, as well as a surrogate for the proposed advanced nuclear fuel candidate uranium carbide. This study investigates structural modifications to nanocrystalline and microcrystalline ZrC resulting from dense electronic excitations induced by swift heavy ion exposure. Samples were irradiated with 946 MeV Au ion…

1
2
3