Hydrogen uptake in Zircaloy-2 reactor fuel claddings studied with elastic recoil detection

The recent trend towards a high burn-up discharge spent nuclear fuel necessitates a thorough understanding of hydrogen uptake in Zr-based cladding materials that encapsulate spent nuclear fuel. Although it is challenging to experimentally replicate exact conditions in a nuclear reactor that lead to hydrogen uptake in claddings, in this study we have attempted to understand the kinetics of hydrogen uptake by first electrolytically charging Zircaloy-2 (Zr-2) cladding material for various durations (100 to 2,600 s), and subsequently examining hydrogen ingress with elastic recoil detection (ERD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). To understand the influence of irradiation damage defects on hydrogen uptake, an analogous study was performed on ion - irradiated (0.1, 1 and 25 dpa) Zr-2. Analysis of ERD data from the un-irradiated Zr-2 suggests that the growth of the hydride layer is diffusion controlled, and preliminary TEM results support this assertion. In un-irradiated Zr-2, the diffusivity of hydrogen in the hydride phase was found to be approximately 1.1 × 10−11 cm2/s, while the diffusivity in the hydride phase for lightly irradiated (0.1 and 1 dpa) Zr-2 is an order of magnitude lower. Irradiation to 25 dpa results in a hydrogen diffusivity that is comparable to the un-irradiated Zr-2. These results are compared with existing literature on hydrogen transport in Zr - based materials.