4.6 Article Proceedings Paper

AREVA NP's enhanced accident-tolerant fuel developments: Focus on Cr-coated M5 cladding

Journal

NUCLEAR ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
Volume 50, Issue 2, Pages 223-228

Publisher

KOREAN NUCLEAR SOC
DOI: 10.1016/j.net.2017.12.004

Keywords

Accident-Tolerant Fuels; Cladding; Cr Coating; Physical Vapor Deposition

Funding

  1. United States Department of Energy [DE-NE0008220]
  2. AREVA Inc.

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AREVA NP (Courbevoie, Paris, France) is actively developing several enhanced accident-tolerant fuels cladding concepts ranging from near-term evolutionary (Cr-coated zirconium alloy cladding) to long-term revolutionary (SiC/SiC composite cladding) solutions, relying on its worldwide teams and partnerships, with programs and irradiations planned both in Europe and the United States. The most advanced and mature solution is a dense, adherent chromium coating on zirconium alloy cladding, which was initially developed along with the CEA and EDF in the French joint nuclear R&D program. The evaluation of the out-of-pile behavior of the Cr-coated cladding showed excellent results, suggesting enhanced reliability, enhanced operational flexibility, and improved economics in normal operating conditions. For example, because chromium is harder than zirconium, the Cr coating provides the cladding with a significantly improved wear resistance. Furthermore, Cr-coated samples exhibit extremely low corrosion kinetics in autoclave and prevents accelerated corrosion in harsh environments such as in water with 70 ppm Li leading to improved operational flexibility. Finally, AREVA NP has fabricated a physical vapor deposition prototype machine to coat full-length cladding tubes. This machine will be used for the manufacturing of full-length lead test rods in commercial reactors by 2019. (C) 2018 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC.

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