Advanced Sample Environments for in situ Neutron Diffraction Studies of Nuclear Materials

Summaries of this presentation are: (1) the author successfully developed and commissioned three sample environments and applied them to study scientific problems of nuclear materials; (2) sample changer - reliable, unattended operation, Reiche and Vogel, 2010; (3) creep furnace - 1000 C, 2.7 kN, texture, Reiche et al., 2012; (4) Zr-2.5Nb pressure tubes - deconvolute the contributions of heating, phase transformation, deformation at temperature in the β-field, and phase transformation during cooling; (5) our data informs currently developed mechanical models predicting texture evolution during phase transformation and high temperature deformation (MST-8, LANL); (6) high-temperature furnace - >2200 C, texture, paper in progress; (7) UC - Bowman's NaCl-type structure correct for cubic UC2, recent reactor safetly calculations by Chevalier and Fischer (2001) and independent work by Freyss (2010) incorrect, as fluorite structure is assumed; and (8) UC - order-disorder transition starting at 1800 C discovered which will improve current models, as these do not predict this transition (e.g. Basak, 2007), or confirm the prediction (Wen et al., 2012, T-1, LANL).