Research Progress in Zirconium Alloy for Accident Tolerant Fuel Cladding Coating

Abstract:

After the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, the world-wide research is focused on the accident tolerant fuel (ATF) program, aimed to enhance the stability and safety of nuclear reactor under normal or off-normal conditions. In the short-term-plan of ATF program, coating technology is considered as a revolutionary approach. Synthesizing a protective coating on the surface of Zr based cladding would improve oxidation resistance obviously with minimal effect on structure of the existing fuel system and properties of the existing nuclear Zr based materials. In this study, a review of coating development status based on Zr alloy is offered, including the coating types, properties and application prospects，also the characteristics of synthesization technology. Based on these analyses, it’s believed that Cr coating could be considered as the best candidate ATF material for industrial application at present, due to its good corrosion resistance at high temperature steam, especially higher than 1200℃. At the same time, it is a key problem to explore a Cr coating synthesization technology suitable for engineering application, with none structure defects, more density and higher interface performance.

Key words:zirconium alloy; accident-tolerant fuel(ATF); fuel cladding, protective coating; preparation Technology