Thermophysical characterization of nitrides inert matrices: Preliminary results on zirconium nitride

Preliminary results have been obtained on a research program confirming the attainment of reliable procedures to perform property measurements on nitride fuels. The thermal transport properties of ZrN were measured; the results obtained so far confirm or extend the range of data available in literature. Increasing trends with temperature were observed, in line with predictions. These activities will be extended to nitride fuels and to systems containing Pu and other actinides like UN, (Ux,Pu1−x)N, (Zr0.8,Pu0.2)N, and irradiated nitride samples.