Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Characterization of eutectic reaction of Cr and Cr/CrN coated zircaloy accident tolerant fuel cladding

  • Dongju Kim (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Seoul National University) ;
  • Martin Sevecek (Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague) ;
  • Youho Lee (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Seoul National University)
  • Received : 2022.12.23
  • Accepted : 2023.06.08
  • Published : 2023.10.25
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Abstract

Eutectic reactions of five kinds of Cr-coated Zr alloy cladding with different base materials (Zr-Nb-Sn alloy or Zr-Nb alloy), different coating thicknesses (6~22.5 mm), and different coating materials (Cr single layer or Cr/CrN bilayer) were studied using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The DSC experiments demonstrated that the onset temperatures of the Cr single layer coated specimens were almost identical to ~1308 ℃, regardless of base materials or coating thicknesses. This study demonstrated that the Cr/CrN bilayer coated Zr-Nb-Sn alloy has a slightly (~10 ℃) higher eutectic onset temperature compared to the single Cr-coated specimen. The eutectic region characterized by post-eutectic microstructure proportionally increases with coating thickness. The post-eutectic characterization with different holding times at high temperature (1310-1330 ℃) reveals that progression of Zr-Cr eutectic requires time, and it dramatically changed with exposure time and temperature. The practical value of the time gain in non-instantaneous eutectic formation in terms of safety margin, however, seems to be limited.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was conducted in the frame of IAEA's Coordinated Research Project on Testing and Simulation for Advanced Technology and Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF-TS T12032). This work was supported by the Nuclear Safety Research Program through the Korea Foundation of Nuclear Safety (KoFONS) using the financial resource granted by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) of the Republic of Korea [2101051 (50%) and 2106021 (50%)]. This work was supported by the Institute of Engineering Research at Seoul National University.

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