Morphologies of uranium deposits produced during electrorefining of EBR-II spent nuclear fuel

The morphologies of U metal samples from deposits produced by electrorefining of Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) spent fuel were examined using scanning electron microscopy, energy- and wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and metallography. The morphologies were analyzed to find correlations with the chemistry of the samples, the ER run conditions, and the deposit performance. A rough correlation was observed between morphology and Zr concentration; samples with Zr contents greater than approximately 200 ppm showed fine-grained, polycrystalline dendritic morphologies, while samples with Zr contents less than approximately 100 ppm were comprised of agglomerations or linked chains of rhomboidal single crystals. There were few correlations found between morphology, run conditions, and deposit performance