Coating technologies in the nuclear industry

Metallic, ceramic, and organic coatings are so commonly used in modern industry that virtually everyone can name several applications in which coatings are employed. Thus, it is no surprise that coating technologies are widely employed in the nuclear industry. Some of these technologies utilize processes that are mature and well developed, and others utilize processes that are new and state of the art. In this paper, five generic coating processes that include almost all vapor deposition processes are described, and then applications of each of these processes for deposition of specific materials in nuclear applications are described. These latter selections, of course, are very subjective, and others will be able to name other applications. Because of their wide range of application, coating technologies are considered to be national critical technologies. The generic coating processes that cover almost all vapor deposition technologies are as follows: (1) stationary substrate chemical vapor deposition; (2) fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition; (3) plasma-assisted chemical deposition; (4) sputtering; (5) evaporation