• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.253-259
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• 2015

The fast neutron reactor BOR-60 is one of the key experimental facilities worldwide to perform large-scale tests of fuel, absorbing, and structural materials for advanced reactors. The BOR-60 reactor was put into operation in December 1969, and by the end of 2014 it had been operating on power for ~265,000 hours. BOR-60 still demonstrates potential capabilities to extend the lifetime of sodium-cooled fast reactors. The BOR-60 lifetime should have expired at the end of 2014. Over the past few years, a great scope of work has been performed to justify the possibility of extending its lifetime. The work included inspection of the equipment conditions, calculations and experimental research on operating parameters and the conditions of nonremovable components, investigation of the structural material samples after their long-term operation under irradiation, etc. Based on the results of the work performed, the residual lifetime was evaluated and the reactor operator made a decision to extend the lifetime period of the BOR-60 reactor. After considering both a set of documents about the reactor conditions and the positive decision of independent experts, the Regulatory Authority of the Russian Federation extended the BOR-60 operating license up to 2020.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.164-168
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• 2016

Lean duplex stainless steels with 0.087 wt.% gadolinium (Gd) were inert arc-melted and cast in molds of size $10mm{\times}10mm{\times}20mm$. The micro-hardnesses of the rolling direction (RD), transverse direction (TD) and short transverse (ST) direction were $258.5H_V$, $292.3H_V$, and $314.7H_V$, respectively. A 33% cold rolled specimen had the crystallographic texture that (100) pole was mainly concentrated to the normal direction (ND) and (110) pole was concentrated in the center of ND and RD. The corrosion potential and corrosion rate in artificial seawater and $0.1M\;H_2SO_4$ solution were in the range of $105.6-221.6mV_{SHE}$, $0.59-1.06mA/cm^2$, and $4.75-8.25mV_{SHE}$, $0.69-1.68mA/cm^2$, respectively. The friction coefficient and wear loss of the 0.087 w/o Gd-lean duplex stainless steels in artificial seawater were about 67% and 65% lower than in air, whereas the wear efficiency was 22% higher. The corrosion and wear behaviors of the 0.087 w/o Gd-lean duplex stainless steels significantly depended on the Gd phases.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.207-213
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• 2019

Corrosion and mechanical behavior of the hot-rolled 0.5%Gd-0.8%B-stainless steel to develop a spent nuclear fuel storage material was studied in a simulated nuclear waste treatment condition with rolling condition. The austenite and ferrite phases of the 0.5%Gd-0.8%B-stainless steels are about 88:12. The average austenite and ferrite grain size of the plane normal to rolling, transverse and normal directions of the hot rolled specimens are about 5.08, 8.94, 19.35, 23.29, 26.00 and 18.11 [${\mu}m$], respectively. The average micro-hardness of the as-cast specimen is 200.4 Hv, whereas, that of the hot-rolled specimen are 220.1, 204.7 and 203.5 [$H_v$] for the plane normal to RD, TD and ND, respectively. The UTS, YS and elongation of the as-cast and the hot-rolled specimen are 699, 484 [MPa], 34.0%, and 654, 432 [MPa] and 33.3%, respectively. The passivity was observed both for the as-cast and the hot rolled specimens in a simulated nuclear waste solution. The corrosion potential and corrosion rate of the as-casted specimens are $-343[mV_{SHE}]$ and $3.26{\times}10^{-7}[A/cm^2]$, whereas, those of the hot rolled specimens with normal to ND, RD and TD are -630, -512 and -620 [$mV_{SHE}$] and $6.12{\times}10^{-7}$, $1.04{\times}10^{-6}$ and $6.92{\times}10^{-7}[A/cm^2]$, respectively. Corrosion tends to occur preferentially Cr and B rich area.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.212-212
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• 2014

0.04% Gd-duplex stainless steels (Gd-DSTSs) for neutron absorbing materials were inert arc-melted and poured into a Y-shape block with the size of $100{\times}100{\times}20[mm]$. The Gd-DSTS was hot rolled at $1200^{\circ}C$ followed by cold rolling to have 33% reduction. The average grain sizes of the rolling (RD), transverse (TD) and short transverse (ST) directions were 6, 7, $11{\mu}m$, respectively. The micro-hardnesses of the RD, TD and ST directions were 258.5, 292.3, 314.7 $H_V$, respectively. Corrosion potential and corrosion rate of the cold rolled Gd-duplex stainless steel in aerated artificial sea water and 0.1M $H_2SO_4$ solution were $0.2216V_{SHE}$, $0.0106A/cm^2$, $-0.0825V_{SHE}$, $0.0168A/cm^2$ for RD, $0.2210V_{SHE}$, $0.0077A/cm^2$, $0.0817V_{SHE}$, $0.0092A/cm^2$ for TD, $0.1056V_{SHE}$, $0.0059A/cm^2$, $0.0475V_{SHE}$, $0.0069A/cm^2$ for ST, respectively. The corrosion behavior depended on the texture, which were due to mainly grain boundary and minorly crystallographic texture. Friction coefficient and wear resistance were 2.07 and 0.48 mm, respectively.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.18-30
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• 2012

Zirconium is one of the most important material used as cladding of fuel rods in nuclear reactors because of its high dimensional stability, good corrosion resistance and especially low neutron-absorbing cross section. However, Hf free nuclear grade Zr sponge is commercially produced by only three countries including USA, France and Russia. So, Zr has been thoroughly managed as a national strategic material in Korea. Most of the zirconium is used for Korean nuclear industry as nuclear fuel cladding materials manufactured from Hf free Zr alloy raw material. Also, there are some other applications such as alloying element and detonator. In this review, zirconium production and recycling technologies have been reviewed and current industrial status was also analyzed. And recent achievements in innovative reduction technologies such as electrolytic reduction process and molten oxide electrolysis were also introduced.