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2014 ANNUAL REPORT 49 2. The effects of irradiation on the thermophysical and material prop- erties of Al3Hf intermetallic and Al3Hf-Al composite and physical morphological metallurgical and microstructural changes of Al3Hf- Al composite after different cycles of irradiation. 3. The decay products of hafnium Hf-179m1 vs. Hf-179m2 and corrosion behavior of the Al3 composite. Successful completion of the project will 1. Provide the necessary data for the development of fast neutron test capabilities at ATR. 2. Fill a knowledge gap on the basic properties of the Al3Hf intermetal- lic and Al3Hf-Al composite. 3. Advance the scientific understand- ing of the irradiation effects on these materials. The end result in terms of the data and fundamental understanding obtained will directly support DOEs mission and benefit the science community in general. Accomplishments During FY 2014 Zilong Hua Utah State University USU performed 3D microstructural reconstruction of unirradiated specimens of the HfAl3- Al metal matrix composite material developed for this project. Focused ion beam FIB milling and electron backscatter diffraction EBSD was performed using the FEI Quanta 3D field emission gun FEG located at CAES.The gallium ions from the FIB were found to be very damaging to the HFAl3-Al so a new procedure was developed to enable the acquisi- tion of acceptable Kikuchi patterns. The serial scans were reconstructed using Dream.3D software and visual- ized using ParaView.This work is pioneering in that 3D microstructural reconstruction has never before been attempted on this material.The procedure was developed using an unirradiated specimen in preparation for work with an irradiated specimen. Completed post-irradiation examina- tion PIE of specimens irradiated in the ATR includes 1. Gamma scans of 18 specimens 2. X-ray diffraction XRD on four specimens 3. Scanning electron microscopy SEM on one specimen 4. Differential scanning calorimeter DSC testing on nine specimens 5. Density measurements on nine specimens DSC results show a marked exotherm on the first heating cycle a mani- festation of radiation damage in the material. DSC was performed on irradiated specimens with 20.0 28.4 and 36.5 vol HfAl3 and compared to similar measurements for the unir- radiated material.The specific heat of the irradiated material was more than 50 higher than that of the unirradi- ated material. Results of the flux monitor analysis were interpreted and published.The performance of the material was evalu- ated by placing neutron fluence moni- tors within shrouded and unshrouded holders and irradiating them in the ATR for up to four cycles.The irradiation assembly consisted of eight capsules containing flux monitors placed in holders fabricated from this new mate- rial referred to as shrouded or in 6061 aluminum alloy holders referred to as unshrouded.The adjusted neutron fluences were calculated and grouped into three binsthermal epithermal and fastto evaluate the spectral shift created by the new material.A comparison of shrouded vs. unshrouded fluence monitors showed a thermal fluence decrease of approxi- mately 11 for the shrouded monitors. For all capsules the fast-to-thermal neutron ratio was higher for the flux monitors shrouded with the HfAl3- Al composite material whereas the ratio is nearly uniform for the wires shrouded by the 6061 aluminum material.The fast-to-thermal ratio appears to be fairly consistent for the unshrouded flux wires regardless of irradiation position e.g. height in the reactor or total fluence e.g. MWd.