Reactor fuel behavior better understood with phonon insights
Tuesday, August 5, 2014 - 08:30
in Physics & Chemistry
(Phys.org) —Nearly 20 percent of the electricity in the United States is generated by nuclear energy from uranium dioxide fuel, but mysteries still surround exactly how the material controls the electrical production: Poor thermal conductivity can limit the conversion rate of heat produced by fission, however we don't know the physics underlying this behavior or, as it turns out, some of the properties to which it gives rise.