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Magnox is an alloy—mainly of magnesium with small amounts of aluminium and other metals—used in cladding unenriched uranium metal fuel with a non-oxidising covering to contain fission products in nuclear reactors. Magnox is short for Magnesium non-oxidising. This material has the advantage of a low neutron capture cross section, but has two major disadvantages:
- It limits the maximum temperature (to about 415 Celsius), and hence the thermal efficiency, of the plant.
- It reacts with water, preventing long-term storage of spent fuel under water in spent fuel pools.
The magnox alloy Al80 has a composition of 0.8% aluminium and 0.004% beryllium.[1]
- ^ Higgins, G. T. (1963). "Secondary recrystallisation in magnox AL 80". Journal of Nuclear Materials. 8 (2): 153. Bibcode:1963JNuM....8..153H. doi:10.1016/0022-3115(63)90030-8.