Countering fuel cladding localized corrosion

General Electric has developed a heat treatment process that modifies the corrosion resistance of the incoming material produced by the Zircaloy vendors to yield material which is resistant to nodular corrosion. This unique process was developed to provide a high degree of assurance that adequate corrosion resistance properties were achieved. The in-reactor corrosion resistance of the specially heat treated material was verified by irradiation testing in actual BWR fuel assemblies. Standard Zircaloy-2 with variable corrosion resistance has been replaced by cladding material with this special heat treatment process to assure nodular corrosion resistance for all GE-BWR fuel cladding