The response of accident tolerant fuel cladding to LOCA burst testing: A comparative study of leading concepts
Abstract
Accident tolerant fuel claddings seek to improve safety margins during loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) scenarios by reducing cladding steam oxidation rates, hydrogen production, delaying or mitigating cladding burst, and reducing cladding deformation. After rapid and extensive progress in recent years, Cr coated Zr-based alloys, ferritic FeCrAl, and SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) have emerged as the most promising cladding concepts, but there are few studies comparing the accident tolerance of all three concepts simultaneously. Here, in this study, LOCA burst testing has been conducted on Cr high impulse power magnetron sputtered Zry-4 (Cr/Zry-4), C26M (FeCrAl), and SiC/SiC SiGA (CMC). Experimental observations indicate Cr/Zry-4 burst at higher temperatures than Zry-4 however the effectiveness of the coating on mitigating ZrO2 formation via Cr2O3 formation depended on physical proximity to the burst opening. No dramatic improvement in diametrical strain nor opening geometry was observed. C26M burst at higher temperatures than Zry-4 at lower pressures, exhibiting small amounts of strain and smaller openings, and formed slow-growing Al2O3 regardless of location. The CMCs did not burst or show any macroscopic signs of deformation, all the way up to an internal cladding pressure of 15.2 MPa. High temperature expanding Nb plug testing indicated that CMC room temperaturemore »
- Authors:
-
- Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain. Advanced Fuel Campaign
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1997815
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Nuclear Materials
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 574; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0022-3115
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; LOCA; Steam oxidation; Burst testing; Accident tolerant fuel cladding; Ceramic matrix; Composite
Citation Formats
Kane, K., Bell, Sam, Capps, Nathan, Garrison, Ben, Shapovalov, K., Jacobsen, G., Deck, C., Graening, Tim Seibert, Koyanagi, Takaaki, and Massey, Caleb. The response of accident tolerant fuel cladding to LOCA burst testing: A comparative study of leading concepts. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154152.
Kane, K., Bell, Sam, Capps, Nathan, Garrison, Ben, Shapovalov, K., Jacobsen, G., Deck, C., Graening, Tim Seibert, Koyanagi, Takaaki, & Massey, Caleb. The response of accident tolerant fuel cladding to LOCA burst testing: A comparative study of leading concepts. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154152
Kane, K., Bell, Sam, Capps, Nathan, Garrison, Ben, Shapovalov, K., Jacobsen, G., Deck, C., Graening, Tim Seibert, Koyanagi, Takaaki, and Massey, Caleb. Tue .
"The response of accident tolerant fuel cladding to LOCA burst testing: A comparative study of leading concepts". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154152. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1997815.
@article{osti_1997815,
title = {The response of accident tolerant fuel cladding to LOCA burst testing: A comparative study of leading concepts},
author = {Kane, K. and Bell, Sam and Capps, Nathan and Garrison, Ben and Shapovalov, K. and Jacobsen, G. and Deck, C. and Graening, Tim Seibert and Koyanagi, Takaaki and Massey, Caleb},
abstractNote = {Accident tolerant fuel claddings seek to improve safety margins during loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) scenarios by reducing cladding steam oxidation rates, hydrogen production, delaying or mitigating cladding burst, and reducing cladding deformation. After rapid and extensive progress in recent years, Cr coated Zr-based alloys, ferritic FeCrAl, and SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) have emerged as the most promising cladding concepts, but there are few studies comparing the accident tolerance of all three concepts simultaneously. Here, in this study, LOCA burst testing has been conducted on Cr high impulse power magnetron sputtered Zry-4 (Cr/Zry-4), C26M (FeCrAl), and SiC/SiC SiGA (CMC). Experimental observations indicate Cr/Zry-4 burst at higher temperatures than Zry-4 however the effectiveness of the coating on mitigating ZrO2 formation via Cr2O3 formation depended on physical proximity to the burst opening. No dramatic improvement in diametrical strain nor opening geometry was observed. C26M burst at higher temperatures than Zry-4 at lower pressures, exhibiting small amounts of strain and smaller openings, and formed slow-growing Al2O3 regardless of location. The CMCs did not burst or show any macroscopic signs of deformation, all the way up to an internal cladding pressure of 15.2 MPa. High temperature expanding Nb plug testing indicated that CMC room temperature strength may persist up to 1650°C, with an approximately 40% loss of strength at 1900°C. CMC steam oxidation was also compared to reference chemically vapor deposited SiC up to 1700°C, and CMCs were found to oxidize at slightly accelerated rates that were still orders of magnitude lower than bare Zry-4. Projected H2 generation during LOCA burst testing showed that when accounting for cladding burst exposing inner diameters to steam, Cr coated Zry-4 reduced H2 generation by a factor of two compared with bare Zry-4, while both C26M and SiC/SiC reduced H2 generation by orders of magnitude relative to bare Zry-4.},
doi = {10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.154152},
journal = {Journal of Nuclear Materials},
number = 1,
volume = 574,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2022},
month = {Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2022}
}
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