Abstract
Chemical vapor deposited (CVD) SiC and nuclear-grade SiC/SiC composite materials were exposed to light water reactor (LWR) conditions at the MIT Nuclear Reactor (MITR). Three sets of samples were exposed within flowing PWR-chemistry-coolant under either 1) neutron and ionizing irradiation with resulting radiolysis products, 2) radiolysis products without neutron flux, 3) loop coolant. Post-irradiation examination (PIE) demonstrated an increase in corrosion from radiolysis products (particularly H2O2), and potentially a further increase from radiation damage. For CVD SiC, regardless of exposure location, the in-situ observed corrosion rate was less than 1 μm per year, potentially within acceptable limits for LWR application.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 152190 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 536 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 1 2020 |
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Travis Dixon, Michael Mcalister, Stephanie Curlin, and the rest of the staff at ORNL's Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis (LAMDA) laboratory, as well as Gordon Kohse and David Carpenter at the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory. Thanks also to Takaaki Koyanagi for helpful review of this document. The research is sponsored by the Advanced Fuels Campaign of the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Program, Office of Nuclear Energy, Department of Energy (DOE), and Westinghouse Electric Company/General Atomics FOA program, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle LLC. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow other to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). The research is sponsored by the Advanced Fuels Campaign of the Nuclear Technology Research and Development Program, Office of Nuclear Energy, Department of Energy (DOE) , and Westinghouse Electric Company/General Atomics FOA program , under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle LLC. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow other to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- ATF
- Accident tolerant fuel cladding
- Ceramic
- Ceramic matrix composites
- Corrosion
- MITR
- Neutron irradiation
- Radiolysis
- SiC
- Weight loss