Magnox (alloy)

{{Refimprove|date=January 2015}}

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.{{cite journal | bibcode = 1963JNuM....8..153H | title=Secondary recrystallisation in magnox AL 80 | journal=Journal of Nuclear Materials | volume=8 | page=153 | year=1963 |author=Higgins, G. T. | issue=2 | doi=10.1016/0022-3115(63)90030-8}}