Vanadium-lined HT9 cladding tubes
Argonne National Laboratory`s Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) is an advanced liquid-metal-cooled reactor (ALMR) that uses a metallic (U-Pu-Zr alloy) fuel material in a steel cladding. The intimate contact between the fuel and fission products with the cladding at reactor operating temperatures (<600{degrees}C) can lead to chemical interaction and potential degradation of the cladding. One possible way to minimize the diffusion of the fuel and fission products into the steel cladding during irradiation is to place a physical barrier between the fuel and cladding. The barrier material chosen would have to be less susceptible to interaction at both the fuel and cladding interfaces. While there may be several methods by which a barrier can be placed between the fuel and cladding in the IFR fuel element, the two that have been pursued most recently are casting the fuel into a mold of the barrier material and then placing the casting and the mold into the steel cladding, and producing a lined, or ``duplex,`` cladding and placing the cast fuel ingot into the duplex cladding. The first method had some significant advantages, but it did not prove to be an effective barrier for fuel/cladding interaction. The second concept is the subject of this paper. For the purposes of testing the duplex cladding concept in-reactor, a fuel element has been designed and manufactured that contains a vanadium barrier between the fuel and cladding. Vanadium was chosen because in-reactor tests conducted by Argonne in the 1960`s indicated that vanadium alloy cladding had excellent metallurgical compatibility with U-Pu-Zr alloys as compared to steel. This paper describes the process for and results from lining IFR cladding tubes with a thin sheet of vanadium in order to produce duplex tubing for in-reactor testing.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 10141949
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ET/CP-80384; CONF-9405123-1; ON: DE94009670
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 15. conference on advances in the production of tubes, bars and shapes,Clearwater, FL (United States),2-3 May 1994; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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