Material Property Determination for Fast Pulsed Reactor Fuels by Rapid Fission Heating

A new experimental technique has been developed for dynamically measuring the thermomechanical properties of fissile materials. The speed of sound, modulus of elasticity, and coefficient of thermal expansion as a function of temperature for uranium alloys can be determined using the heating conditions that exist in a fast pulsed reactor. The technique was developed to provide thermomechanical property data for pulse reactor fuels under actual use conditions.