Effects of Cr/Zircaloy-4 coating qualities for enhanced accident tolerant fuel cladding

Mackenzie Ridley; Samuel Bell; Ben Garrison; Tim Graening; Nathan Capps; Yi Feng Su; Peter Mouche; Brandon Johnston; Kenneth Kane

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109799

Effects of Cr/Zircaloy-4 coating qualities for enhanced accident tolerant fuel cladding

Mackenzie Ridley, Samuel Bell, Ben Garrison, Tim Graening, Nathan Capps, Yi Feng Su, Peter Mouche, Brandon Johnston, Kenneth Kane

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cr-coated zirconium alloys represent a modern approach to enhance cladding safety during accident scenarios. Two high-power impulse magnetron sputtered Cr-coated Zry-4 systems were subjected to simulated loss-of-coolant accident conditions to investigate cladding performance. The first Cr-coating (4.8 µm thick) was deposited onto Zry-4 cladding and exhibited through-thickness cracking while the second Cr-coating (6.8 µm thick) was deposited with improved deposition parameters onto polished Zry-4 and exhibited no cracking. During burst testing, the coating with a higher density of defects failed to consistently reduce oxidation and exhibited similar burst behavior as Zry-4. In contrast, the second Cr-coating reduced ZrO₂ formation through formation of Cr₂O₃ and displayed enhanced burst temperatures by ∼80 °C compared to Zry-4. Utilizing an empirical relation for burst behavior of zirconium alloys, the 6.8 µm Cr/Zry-4 system displayed enhanced burst temperatures equivalent to an effective 0.464 mm increase in Zry-4 wall thickness, highlighting the value of continuous Cr coatings for accident scenarios.

Original language	English
Article number	109799
Journal	Annals of Nuclear Energy
Volume	188
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109799
State	Published - Aug 2023

Funding

The authors would like to thank A. Willoughby and C. O ’Dell from ORNL. The authors would also like to thank J. Keiser and C. Massey for technical review at ORNL. This work was supported through the Advanced Fuels Campaign by the Office of Nuclear Energy within the United States Department of Energy.

Funders	Funder number
Nuclear Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Keywords

Accident tolerant fuel
Chromium coatings
Cladding
HiPIMS
LOCA
Zircaloy-4

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10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109799

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title = "Effects of Cr/Zircaloy-4 coating qualities for enhanced accident tolerant fuel cladding",

abstract = "Cr-coated zirconium alloys represent a modern approach to enhance cladding safety during accident scenarios. Two high-power impulse magnetron sputtered Cr-coated Zry-4 systems were subjected to simulated loss-of-coolant accident conditions to investigate cladding performance. The first Cr-coating (4.8 µm thick) was deposited onto Zry-4 cladding and exhibited through-thickness cracking while the second Cr-coating (6.8 µm thick) was deposited with improved deposition parameters onto polished Zry-4 and exhibited no cracking. During burst testing, the coating with a higher density of defects failed to consistently reduce oxidation and exhibited similar burst behavior as Zry-4. In contrast, the second Cr-coating reduced ZrO2 formation through formation of Cr2O3 and displayed enhanced burst temperatures by ∼80 °C compared to Zry-4. Utilizing an empirical relation for burst behavior of zirconium alloys, the 6.8 µm Cr/Zry-4 system displayed enhanced burst temperatures equivalent to an effective 0.464 mm increase in Zry-4 wall thickness, highlighting the value of continuous Cr coatings for accident scenarios.",

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author = "Mackenzie Ridley and Samuel Bell and Ben Garrison and Tim Graening and Nathan Capps and Su, {Yi Feng} and Peter Mouche and Brandon Johnston and Kenneth Kane",

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doi = "10.1016/j.anucene.2023.109799",

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AU - Garrison, Ben

AU - Graening, Tim

AU - Capps, Nathan

AU - Su, Yi Feng

AU - Mouche, Peter

AU - Johnston, Brandon

AU - Kane, Kenneth

PY - 2023/8

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N2 - Cr-coated zirconium alloys represent a modern approach to enhance cladding safety during accident scenarios. Two high-power impulse magnetron sputtered Cr-coated Zry-4 systems were subjected to simulated loss-of-coolant accident conditions to investigate cladding performance. The first Cr-coating (4.8 µm thick) was deposited onto Zry-4 cladding and exhibited through-thickness cracking while the second Cr-coating (6.8 µm thick) was deposited with improved deposition parameters onto polished Zry-4 and exhibited no cracking. During burst testing, the coating with a higher density of defects failed to consistently reduce oxidation and exhibited similar burst behavior as Zry-4. In contrast, the second Cr-coating reduced ZrO2 formation through formation of Cr2O3 and displayed enhanced burst temperatures by ∼80 °C compared to Zry-4. Utilizing an empirical relation for burst behavior of zirconium alloys, the 6.8 µm Cr/Zry-4 system displayed enhanced burst temperatures equivalent to an effective 0.464 mm increase in Zry-4 wall thickness, highlighting the value of continuous Cr coatings for accident scenarios.

AB - Cr-coated zirconium alloys represent a modern approach to enhance cladding safety during accident scenarios. Two high-power impulse magnetron sputtered Cr-coated Zry-4 systems were subjected to simulated loss-of-coolant accident conditions to investigate cladding performance. The first Cr-coating (4.8 µm thick) was deposited onto Zry-4 cladding and exhibited through-thickness cracking while the second Cr-coating (6.8 µm thick) was deposited with improved deposition parameters onto polished Zry-4 and exhibited no cracking. During burst testing, the coating with a higher density of defects failed to consistently reduce oxidation and exhibited similar burst behavior as Zry-4. In contrast, the second Cr-coating reduced ZrO2 formation through formation of Cr2O3 and displayed enhanced burst temperatures by ∼80 °C compared to Zry-4. Utilizing an empirical relation for burst behavior of zirconium alloys, the 6.8 µm Cr/Zry-4 system displayed enhanced burst temperatures equivalent to an effective 0.464 mm increase in Zry-4 wall thickness, highlighting the value of continuous Cr coatings for accident scenarios.

KW - Accident tolerant fuel

KW - Chromium coatings

KW - Cladding

KW - HiPIMS

KW - LOCA

KW - Zircaloy-4

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Effects of Cr/Zircaloy-4 coating qualities for enhanced accident tolerant fuel cladding

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