High temperature oxidation of NB-containing ZR alloy cladding in LOCA conditions

Abstract

In order to evaluate high-temperature oxidation behavior of the advanced alloy cladding under LOCA conditions, isothermal oxidation tests in steam were performed with cladding specimens prepared from high burnup PWR fuel rods that were irradiated up to 79 MWd/kg. Cladding materials were M5® and ZIRLO™, which are Nb-containing alloys. Ring-shaped specimens were isothermally oxidized in flowing steam at temperatures from 1173 to 1473 K for the duration between 120 and 4000s. Oxidation rates were evaluated from measured oxide layer thickness and weight gain. A protective effect of the preformed corrosion layer is seen for the shorter time range at the lower temperatures. The influence of pre-hydriding is not significant for the examined range. Alloy composition change generally has small influence on oxidation in the examined temperature range, though M5® shows an obviously smaller oxidation constant at 1273 K. Consequently, the oxidation rates of the high burnup M5® and ZIRLO™ cladding are comparable or lower than that of unirradiated Zircaloy-4 cladding.