Nuclear Fuel Development

  • Passionately working on improving mechanical and thermal performance of accident tolerant fuel (ATF) for LWR. Actively exploring safer and reliable fuel forms with higher uranium density and enhanced oxidation resistance.
  • Synthesized UO2 pellets with spark plasma sintering (SPS) and studied the grain size effect on its mechanical properties at elevated temperatures with nano- and microindentation testing.
  • Manufactured commercial-size UO2 with SPS. Conducted microstructure and microchemical analysis to examine the uniformity of its density, grain size, and stoichiometry, demonstrating the potential of SPS to fabricate nuclear fuels cost-effectively.
  • Analyzed additive impact on the thermal conductivity, mechanical property, and oxidation resistance of U3Si2. The additives include Cr, BeO, Al, and UO2.
  • Derived oxidation activation energy of microcrystalline and nanocrystalline U3Si2 via kinetic analysis and isothermal TGA testing.
  • Assessed the stability of Cr doped and Cr+Al doped U3Si2 in H2O containing atmospheres with ramping/isothermal steam testing and evaluated the degradation mechanism of U3Si2 in H2O.
  • Studied thermal-induced and irradiation-induced grain growth of U3Si2 and derived the corresponding activation energies.
  • Investigated irradiation-induced amorphization and subdivision of U3Si2, along with the analysis of bubble formation and growth under the bombardment of Xe and Kr.
  • Generated machine learning and regression models to examine the factors that govern the leaching behavior of pyrochlore, which can be used to predict and validate leaching experiment results.
  • Familiar with characterization tools, such as SEM, TEM, and XRD. Frequently employed focused ion beam (FIB) to manufacture TEM samples.
Bowen Gong
Bowen Gong
Quant Software Developer in Citibank

My research interests include Network Science, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Parallel Computing.

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