Effect of silicon impurities and heat treatment on uranium hydriding rates

Several experiments were run to identify variables that affect the hydriding rate of depleted uranium. Only two factors affecting hydriding rate were found: temperature (and time) of the final heat treatment, and silicon content. Increasing the time and temperature of alpha-phase anneals increased the reaction rate, and annealing in the beta-phase greatly increased the reaction rate over alpha-phase annealing. Silicon contents of up to 100 wppm cause dramatic increases in the hydride reaction rate for both alpha- and beta-phase annealed samples.