Post-irradiation behavior of nuclear materials for domestic reactor

Irradiation effect on hardness and corrosion behavior of aluminum for thermal insulator and zirconium alloy for nuclear cladding tube of a nuclear power plant were studied. The specimens were irradiated in CT hole of HANARO after installed in an instrumented capsule with a specimen case. The irradiation test was carried out at the temperature of 300 .deg. C and neutron fluence a of 4.8X1020n/cm20/sec. The average hardness determined by nano-indentor of the aluminum was increased from 0.05 GPa to 0.55 due to irradiation hardening, that was decreased to 0.23 GPa by 6 hour thermal annealing. Zirconium Hydride (ZrH) were well formed in the zirconium alloy by the infiltration mechanism of hydrogen ion that was thermodynamically explained by correspondence principle. Corrosion potential and rate of the zirconium alloy in 40wt.% HCl-500 ppm FeCl3 aqueous solution were about 72.0 mVSHE and 6.070x10-5A/cm2, respectively. Addition of 1500 ppm of FeCl3 changed those values up to about 31.0 mVSHE and 1.809x10-4A/cm2, respectively. Corrosion resistance of the alloy was decreased with Fe3+ and Cl- content in solution and hydride formation in the alloy, which can be well described by the mechanism of passive film dissolution