In-reactor corrosion test for modern cladding materials (IFA-638)

A cladding corrosion test (IFA-638) is being conducted at the Halden Project with the main objective to investigate the corrosion behaviour of modern PWR cladding materials at increasing burnup/neutron fluence under PWR conditions. There are two parts to the experiment. one using fuelled cladding sections and the other using unfuelled coupons made from quarter and one-third sectors of cladding. The materials being studied as fuelled sections are low tin Zr-2 and Zr-4, high tin Zr-4, ZIRLO, M4 and M5 and Alloy A and E635. Thirtysix (36) cladding coupons have been prepared from the cladding materials provided by ABBAtom, Framatome and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. This report summarizes the operating conditions during the second irradiation period and the results of the first and second interim inspections. Interim inspections were carried to assess the oxide growth of both the fuel cladding and the coupons during the shutdown. The eddy current technique was used on the fuel rods and the coupons were weighed and visually examined