Fabrication of uniform ZrC coating layer for the coated fuel particle of the very high temperature reactor

Ueta, Shohei   ; Aihara, Jun ; Yasuda, Atsushi; Ishibashi, Hideharu; Takayama, Tomoo; Sawa, Kazuhiro

The Very-High-Temperature Reactor (VHTR) is the one of the most promising candidates for the Generation IV Nuclear Energy System. The VHTR fuel should exhibit excellent safety performance up to burn-ups of about 15 to 20%FIMA and fluences of 610 n/m(E0.1 MeV). There is no experimental data which has proved the intactness of conventional SiC-coated fuel particles under such severe condition. Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) developed Zirconium carbide (ZrC)-coated fuel particles which is expected to maintain its intactness under higher temperature and burn-up compared with SiC-coating layer. JAEA has newly started the development of coating process by large-scale and of inspection method, and the irradiation of ZrC-coated particles from 2004. The fabrication tests of ZrC-coating have been started by new-series coater, and uniform ZrC coating layer has successfully been fabricated by the improvement of temperature control technique.