Irradiation behaviour of uranium silicide compounds

A study of the irradiation behaviour of uranium silicide and other related inter-metallic uranium compounds is presented. This study was motivated by the recent discovery that U3Si2 undergoes a crystalline to amorphous transformation during irradiation. Such information renders a previously developed fuel swelling model based on the crystalline state of U3Si2 invalid. This is of particular significance since low enriched U3Si2 dispersion fuels are widely used in research reactors. While such a finding does not alter the well established, stable and benign behaviour of U3Si2 during irradiation, it does indicate that a different interpretation of that behaviour is required.