Waterside corrosion of Zircaloy fuel rods. Final report. [PWR]
There is an economic incentive to extend average fuel-rod-discharge burnup to about 50 GWd/t. For these higher burnups it is necessary to know if increased waterside corrosion of the cladding will influence fuel-rod performance. For this reason, EPRI sponsored a joint program with C-E and KWU with the objective of investigating PWR waterside corrosion. This final report presents and discusses the results of various subtasks that comprised this project. In the review of corrosion data and models in the literature it was concluded that the PWR environment enhances the corrosion rate by about three times that expected from ex-reactor tests. A large number of fuel rods were characterized in both spent-fuel-pool and hot-cell campaigns. Chemical, physical and microstructural attributes of irradiated and unirradiated oxide films were measured. These included determinations of chemical composition, crystal structure, microstructure, density, specific heat, thermal conductivity, and post-irradiation autoclave corrosion behavior. Procedures used to calculate the fuel-rod surface temperature were reviewed. A model has been developed to predict in-reactor corrosion behavior.
- Research Organization:
- Kraftwerk Union A.G., Erlangen (Germany, F.R.); Combustion Engineering, Inc., Windsor, CT (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6547121
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-NP-2789; ON: DE83901120
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
210200* -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Nonboiling Water Cooled
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360105 -- Metals & Alloys-- Corrosion & Erosion
ALLOYS
BURNUP
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMISTRY
CORROSION
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
FUEL CANS
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUEL RODS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTORS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TIN ALLOYS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
WATER CHEMISTRY
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
ZIRCALOY
ZIRCONIUM ALLOYS
ZIRCONIUM BASE ALLOYS
ZIRCONIUM COMPOUNDS
ZIRCONIUM OXIDES