Publications
Showing 18 results for Author: Bryan M. Conry
Sep, 2026
ORNL Report
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Kairos Power 2026 Annual Report: Project Year 1
Jul, 2026
Journal
Stoichiometric effects on grain growth in zirconium carbide coatings for high-temperature nuclear fuel
Interest in coated particle fuel for space nuclear propulsion (SNP) has expanded in recent years due to successful demonstrations of the resiliency of the coatings to extreme environments. For SNP applications, the coating layer for the particle design needs to be able to withstand exposure to high temperature hydrogen during operating conditions. ZrC has been proposed as…
Jun, 2026
Journal
Linking spout fluidization hydrodynamics to pyrolytic carbon deposition characteristics in a fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition reactor
Spout fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition (SFB-CVD) is the dominant method for producing pyrolytic carbon (PyC) coatings on tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles, yet the relationship between gas injector design, fluidization hydrodynamics, and resulting coating quality remains poorly quantified. In this work, three spout fluidized bed (SFB) nozzle geometries…
Jun, 2026
Journal
Development of a coupled experimental–computational approach for engineering optimization of spout-fluidized bed particle coating systems
The design of spout-fluidized bed (SFB) coating systems for nuclear particle fuels typically relies on trial-and-error processes, comprising iterative and time-consuming coating deposition experiments and post-deposition characterization. At an engineering scale, this approach to guided SFB system design is inefficient, highlighting the need for streamlined experimental me…
May, 2026
ORNL Report
Long-Length SiC/SiC Tube Irradiation Experiment at LWR Temperatures Inserted into HFIR
Apr, 2026
Journal
Methods development towards automated, physics-informed, quantitative quality control of TRISO-SiC
Tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles have been developed as a high-performance fuel for use in high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) systems due to their high efficiency and stability under both normal and off-normal conditions. Broader deployment of this technology in advanced nuclear applications may benefit from quantitative quality assurance and quality…
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…
Mar, 2026
Conference Paper
A Machine Learning Approach Toward Improving QA/QC of Coated Particle Fuels
Coated particle fuels, such as the tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel particle, have been studied and developed for decades for high-temperature gas reactor (HTGR) applications because of their efficiency and relative stability under off-normal conditions. Critical to this development is a strong understanding of the relationship between fuel fabrication, properties and…
Mar, 2026
Conference Paper
Numerical Analysis of the Impact of Kernel Quality on Fluidized Bed Chemical Vapor Deposition