Sep, 2026
ORNL Report
Publications
Showing 37 results for Author: Matt M. Kurley III
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…
Jun, 2025
Journal
The Impact of Europium as a Fission Product Surrogate on Chromium Corrosion in Molten Chloride Salt
The rising interest in molten salts, both as thermal energy storage media and as high-temperature solvents for fissile materials in advanced nuclear reactors, has spurred significant growth in research on structural and functional salt-facing materials. Impurities, such as water, play a significant role in the degradation of materials in molten salt environments. Other imp…
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…
Nov, 2024
ORNL Report
aLEU Program FY24 Report On Sintering Additives For Improved Microstructure Control
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…