NSUF 10-286: Radiation Effects on Ceramic Coating of Advanced Cladding for Fast Reactors
Fast reactors will play an important role in the fuel cycle and waste management for a sustainable development of nuclear energy. Fuel-cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) is one of the major concerns for the next generation fast reactors fuels. For a typical HT-9 cladding, FCCI is driven by transport of cladding constituents, fission products and fuel constituents between cladding and fuel, resulting in degradation in cladding by forming brittle phases in the cladding and formation of low melting point phases within the fuel. While the current options for developing cladding alloys with good resistance to FCCI is very limited, a strong and robust ceramic coating has been considered as a viable remedy to the problem. A 1-µm thick coating of a single layer TiN or multilayer of TiN/AlN with a sub layer thickness of 50 nm have been demonstrated to be effective as a diffusion barrier and shows excellent radiation tolerance. In this proposal, the reseachers will investigate the microstructural stability of the ceramic coating on HT-9 and MA957 alloy under heavy ion irradiation (5 MeV Fe ions at 500° C) to 10, 50 and 200 dpa. The microstructural evolution in the coating and at the interface as a function of irradiation dose will be characterized using transmission electron microscopy.Radiation-induced changes in microstructure and its impact on coating performance will be investigated. The effect of irradiation on coating/cladding interface bonding strength will also be evaluated using nanomechanical testing techniques. The use of heavy Fe ions is to introduce high displacement damage relevant to the cladding target lifetime doses (>200 dpa), minimize the undesired spurious chemical effects (Fe ions to Fe based cladding alloys, HT-9 and MA-957) and avoid activating the samples from irradiation to facilitate testing. This work coupled with the planed neutron irradiation of diffusion couples to an intermediate dose (~ 6 dpa) will provide insight on the potential role of cladding coatings in mitigating FCCI which is critical for development of high burn-up fuel forms. Heavy ion irradiations will be performed at the University of Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory over a two-week period during the summer of 2010 with the ATR user facility support only to support the cost of performing the irradiations at the University of Michigan. FCRD programmatic funding will be used to conduct postirradiation characterization.
Additional Info
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Fast reactors will play an important role in the fuel cycle and waste management for a sustainable development of nuclear energy. Fuel-cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) is one of the major concerns for the next generation fast reactors fuels. For a typical HT-9 cladding, FCCI is driven by transport of cladding constituents, fission products and fuel constituents between cladding and fuel, resulting in degradation in cladding by forming brittle phases in the cladding and formation of low melting point phases within the fuel. While the current options for developing cladding alloys with good resistance to FCCI is very limited, a strong and robust ceramic coating has been considered as a viable remedy to the problem. A 1-µm thick coating of a single layer TiN or multilayer of TiN/AlN with a sub layer thickness of 50 nm have been demonstrated to be effective as a diffusion barrier and shows excellent radiation tolerance. In this proposal, the reseachers will investigate the microstructural stability of the ceramic coating on HT-9 and MA957 alloy under heavy ion irradiation (5 MeV Fe ions at 500° C) to 10, 50 and 200 dpa. The microstructural evolution in the coating and at the interface as a function of irradiation dose will be characterized using transmission electron microscopy.Radiation-induced changes in microstructure and its impact on coating performance will be investigated. The effect of irradiation on coating/cladding interface bonding strength will also be evaluated using nanomechanical testing techniques. The use of heavy Fe ions is to introduce high displacement damage relevant to the cladding target lifetime doses (>200 dpa), minimize the undesired spurious chemical effects (Fe ions to Fe based cladding alloys, HT-9 and MA-957) and avoid activating the samples from irradiation to facilitate testing. This work coupled with the planed neutron irradiation of diffusion couples to an intermediate dose (~ 6 dpa) will provide insight on the potential role of cladding coatings in mitigating FCCI which is critical for development of high burn-up fuel forms. Heavy ion irradiations will be performed at the University of Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory over a two-week period during the summer of 2010 with the ATR user facility support only to support the cost of performing the irradiations at the University of Michigan. FCRD programmatic funding will be used to conduct postirradiation characterization. |
| Award Announced Date | 2010-08-09T00:00:00 |
| Awarded Institution | None |
| Facility | None |
| Facility Tech Lead | Kevin Field |
| Irradiation Facility | None |
| PI | Jian Gan |
| PI Email | [email protected] |
| Project Type | RTE |
| RTE Number | 286 |