Cold Spray Coating Technique with FeCrAl Alloy Powder for Developing Accident Tolerant Fuel Cladding

Various approaches to enhance safety have been suggested, replacing current Zr-based alloys for fuel cladding with advanced materials exhibiting lower oxidation rates can be a basic solution. Many advanced materials such as FeCrAl alloys; Mn+1AXn, (MAX) phases, where n = 1 to 3, M is an early transition metal, A is an A-group (mostly IIIA and IVA, or groups 13 and 14) element and X is either carbon or nitrogen; Mo; and SiC are being considered as possible candidates. Among the proposed fuel cladding substitutes, Fe-based alloys are one of the most promising candidates owing to their excellent formability, high strength, and oxidation resistance at high temperature. In this work, the ATF technology concept of Fe-based alloy coating on the existing Zr-alloy cladding was considered and results on the optimization study for fabrication of coated tube samples were described. Result obtained from high temperature oxidation test under steam environment at 1200 .deg. C indicates that FeCrAl alloy coated Zr metal matrix may maintain its integrity during LOCA. This means that accident tolerance of FeCrAl alloy coated Zr cladding sample had been greatly improved compared to that of existing Zr-based alloy fuel cladding