Crushing strength of irradiated Triso coated fuel particles

Abstract The crushing strength of irradiated Triso coated fuel particles was studied. The crushing tests were carried out on 17 kinds of irradiated samples and on 10 kinds of unirradiated samples for purposes of comparison. It was observed that the crushing strength decreased after compact fabrication as well as after irradiation. The crushing strength was found to decrease with increasing fast neutron fluence and irradiation temperature. No difference was seen in the nature of the change of the crushing strength as a result of irradiation between the particles coated by propane-derived PyC and propylene-derived PyC. The decrease in the crushing strength after irradiation could not be explained clearly, but it might have been caused by the debonding of the buffer layer from either the kernel or the IPyC layer.