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Accident Tolerant FeCrAl Fuel Cladding: Current Status Towards Commercialization

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Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems – Water Reactors

Part of the book series: The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series ((MMMS))

Abstract

FeCrAl alloys are rapidly becoming mature candidate alloys for accident tolerant fuel applications. The FeCrAl material class has shown excellent oxidation resistance in high-temperature steam environments, a key aspect of any accident tolerant cladding concept, while also being corrosion resistant, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) resistant, irradiation-induced swelling resistant, weldable, and formable. Current research efforts are focused on design, development and commercial scaling of advanced FeCrAl alloys including large-scale, thin-walled seamless tube production followed by a broad spectrum of degradation evaluations in both normal and off-normal conditions. Included in this discussion is the theoretical analysis of the alloying principles and rules, alloy composition design, and overview of the most recent empirical database on possible degradation phenomena for FeCrAl alloys. The results are derived from extensive in-pile and out-of-pile experiments and form the basis for near-term deployment of a lead-test rod and/or assembly within a commercially operating nuclear power plant.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, Advanced Fuel Campaign of the Fuel Cycle R&D program and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, for the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) program for the Reactor Materials effort. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. 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 others 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).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA

    Kevin G. Field, Yukinori Yamamoto & Bruce A. Pint

  2. Fusion and Materials for Nuclear Systems Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA

    Maxim N. Gussev & Kurt A. Terrani

Authors
  1. Kevin G. Field
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  2. Yukinori Yamamoto
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  3. Bruce A. Pint
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  4. Maxim N. Gussev
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  5. Kurt A. Terrani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kevin G. Field .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, USA

    John H. Jackson

  2. Naval Nuclear Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Denise Paraventi

  3. Chalk River Laboratories, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, ON, Canada

    Michael Wright

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© 2019 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

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Field, K.G., Yamamoto, Y., Pint, B.A., Gussev, M.N., Terrani, K.A. (2019). Accident Tolerant FeCrAl Fuel Cladding: Current Status Towards Commercialization. In: Jackson, J., Paraventi, D., Wright, M. (eds) Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems – Water Reactors. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04639-2_91

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