Cladding corrosion studies under heat-transfer conditions for the advanced neutron source

The Advanced Neutron Source (ANS) Corrosion Test Loop is being used to test candidate alloys for fuel cladding for the ANS reactor over a wide range of thermal-hydraulic parameters. Tests have been conducted on specimens of 6061 aluminum that yield meaningful comparisons to earlier (i.e. the High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Advanced Test Reactor) data and illustrate several important aspects of the process. In addition to the direct measurements of temperature response, these tests indicate that the film growth rate and morphology are sensitive to the heat flux and coolant water chemistry, as well as other system temperatures. A data base is being established from which the authors will eventually derive a correlation to define the oxide buildup under ANS conditions. In this paper the features and unique capabilities of the test loop are described along with a discussion of the experimental results