Thermodynamics of the uranium-zirconium system

Abstract Renewed interest in metallic fuel for nuclear reactors has prompted new studies of the thermodynamics and phase equilibria in binary alloys containing uranium, plutonium, and zirconium so that the ternary phase diagram might be calculated. An analysis of the uranium-zirconium alloy system has been performed. Thermodynamic functions for all existing uranium-zirconium phases have been derived and a phase diagram was calculated. These results are compared with the available thermodynamic data and accepted phase diagrams and general agreement was found. Disagreements generally occurred where experimental data were sparse and when previously drawn phase boundaries were found to be inconsistent with theory.