Abstract
Since the beginning of the French nuclear program, a surveillance of fuel has been carried out in order to evaluate the fuel behaviour under irradiation. Until now, nuclear fuels provided by suppliers have met EDF requirements concerning fuel behaviour and reliability. But, the need to minimize the costs and to increase the flexibility of the power plants led EDF to the definition of new targets: optimization of the core management and fuel cycle economy. The fuel behaviour experience shows that some of these new requirements cannot be fully fulfilled by the present standard fuel due to some technological limits. Particularly, burnup enhancement is limited by the oxidation and the hydriding of the Zircaloy 4 fuel rod cladding. Also, fuel suppliers and EDF need to have a better knowledge of the Zy-4 cladding behaviour in order to define the existing margins and the limiting factors. For this reason, in-reactor fuel characterization programs have been set up by fuel suppliers and EDF for a few years. This paper presents the main results and conclusions of EDF experience on Zy-4 in-reactor corrosion behaviour. Data obtained from oxide layer or zirconia thickness measurements show that corrosion performance of Zy-4 fuel rod cladding, as irradiated
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Citation Formats
Romary, H, and Deydier, D.
Corrosion behaviour of zircaloy 4 fuel rod cladding in EDF power plants.
IAEA: N. p.,
1997.
Web.
Romary, H, & Deydier, D.
Corrosion behaviour of zircaloy 4 fuel rod cladding in EDF power plants.
IAEA.
Romary, H, and Deydier, D.
1997.
"Corrosion behaviour of zircaloy 4 fuel rod cladding in EDF power plants."
IAEA.
@misc{etde_462424,
title = {Corrosion behaviour of zircaloy 4 fuel rod cladding in EDF power plants}
author = {Romary, H, and Deydier, D}
abstractNote = {Since the beginning of the French nuclear program, a surveillance of fuel has been carried out in order to evaluate the fuel behaviour under irradiation. Until now, nuclear fuels provided by suppliers have met EDF requirements concerning fuel behaviour and reliability. But, the need to minimize the costs and to increase the flexibility of the power plants led EDF to the definition of new targets: optimization of the core management and fuel cycle economy. The fuel behaviour experience shows that some of these new requirements cannot be fully fulfilled by the present standard fuel due to some technological limits. Particularly, burnup enhancement is limited by the oxidation and the hydriding of the Zircaloy 4 fuel rod cladding. Also, fuel suppliers and EDF need to have a better knowledge of the Zy-4 cladding behaviour in order to define the existing margins and the limiting factors. For this reason, in-reactor fuel characterization programs have been set up by fuel suppliers and EDF for a few years. This paper presents the main results and conclusions of EDF experience on Zy-4 in-reactor corrosion behaviour. Data obtained from oxide layer or zirconia thickness measurements show that corrosion performance of Zy-4 fuel rod cladding, as irradiated until now in EDF reactors, is satisfactory but not sufficient to meet the future needs. The fuel suppliers propose in order to improve the corrosion resistance of fuel rod cladding, low tin Zy-4 cladding and then optimized Zy-4 cladding. Irradiation of these claddings are ongoing. The available corrosion data show the better in-reactor corrosion resistance of optimized Zy-4 fuel rod cladding compared to the standard Zy-4 cladding. The scheduled fuel surveillance program will confirm if the optimized Zy-4 fuel rod cladding will meet the requirements for the future high burnup and high flexibility fuel. (author). 10 refs, 19 figs, 4 tabs.}
place = {IAEA}
year = {1997}
month = {Feb}
}
title = {Corrosion behaviour of zircaloy 4 fuel rod cladding in EDF power plants}
author = {Romary, H, and Deydier, D}
abstractNote = {Since the beginning of the French nuclear program, a surveillance of fuel has been carried out in order to evaluate the fuel behaviour under irradiation. Until now, nuclear fuels provided by suppliers have met EDF requirements concerning fuel behaviour and reliability. But, the need to minimize the costs and to increase the flexibility of the power plants led EDF to the definition of new targets: optimization of the core management and fuel cycle economy. The fuel behaviour experience shows that some of these new requirements cannot be fully fulfilled by the present standard fuel due to some technological limits. Particularly, burnup enhancement is limited by the oxidation and the hydriding of the Zircaloy 4 fuel rod cladding. Also, fuel suppliers and EDF need to have a better knowledge of the Zy-4 cladding behaviour in order to define the existing margins and the limiting factors. For this reason, in-reactor fuel characterization programs have been set up by fuel suppliers and EDF for a few years. This paper presents the main results and conclusions of EDF experience on Zy-4 in-reactor corrosion behaviour. Data obtained from oxide layer or zirconia thickness measurements show that corrosion performance of Zy-4 fuel rod cladding, as irradiated until now in EDF reactors, is satisfactory but not sufficient to meet the future needs. The fuel suppliers propose in order to improve the corrosion resistance of fuel rod cladding, low tin Zy-4 cladding and then optimized Zy-4 cladding. Irradiation of these claddings are ongoing. The available corrosion data show the better in-reactor corrosion resistance of optimized Zy-4 fuel rod cladding compared to the standard Zy-4 cladding. The scheduled fuel surveillance program will confirm if the optimized Zy-4 fuel rod cladding will meet the requirements for the future high burnup and high flexibility fuel. (author). 10 refs, 19 figs, 4 tabs.}
place = {IAEA}
year = {1997}
month = {Feb}
}