Burst Test Research on Zirconium Alloy for Nuclear Fuel Cladding Tubes

Recycle of Zirconium from Used Nuclear Fuel Cladding:

Feasibility tests were initiated to determine if the zirconium in commercial used nuclear fuel (UNF) cladding can be recovered in sufficient purity to permit re-use, and if the recovery process can be operated economically. Initial tests are being performed with unirradiated, non-radioactive samples of various types of Zircaloy materials that are used in UNF cladding to develop the recovery pro...

Behaviors of Nuclear Fuel Cladding During RIA

Microstructure and Mechanical Strength of Surface Ods Treated Zircaloy-4 Sheet Using Laser Beam Scanning

Zirconium alloys have been used as a fuel cladding material for a long time because they have good corrosion resistance and irradiation stability in a reactor environment. However, it was recognized that the severe oxidation and creep ballooning behaviors of zirconium alloy cladding tubes at an accident condition of a nuclear reactor have to be considered to improve nuclear plant safety after t...

Use of Secondary Ions Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) for Cladding Materials Post- Irradiation Examination (PIE)

Zirconium-based alloys are widely used in the field of nuclear industry as cladding for nuclear fuel in power plants. In a pressurized water reactor (PWR), boric acid is added in the coolant for reactivity control. Lithium hydroxide is added to render the coolant slightly alkaline, which helps to inhibit corrosion product deposition on the fuel cladding and reduces the corrosion rate of structu...

Consortium for Advanced Simulation of LWRs

This paper describes a multi-scale modeling approach to compute the large-strain deformation of zirconium alloy cladding, which is of interest to the study of fuel rod behaviors in transient and accident conditions. A Visco-Plastic Self-Consistent (VPSC) polycrystal plasticity model representing polycrystals by weighted orientations of single crystals has been implemented as the constitutive la...