Super ODS steels R&D for fuel cladding of next generation nuclear systems, 1; Introduction and alloy design

Kimura, Akihiko*; Kasada, Ryuta*; Iwata, Noriyuki*; Kishimoto, Hirotatsu*; Zhang, C. H.*; Isselin, J.*; Dou, P.*; Lee, J. H.*; Muthukumar, N.*; Okuda, Takanari*; Inoue, Masaki ; Ukai, Shigeharu*; Onuki, Somei*; Fujisawa, Toshiharu*; Abe, Fujio*

Cladding material development is essential for realization of highly efficient high burn-up operation of next generation nuclear systems, where high performance is required for the materials, that is, high strength at elevated temperature, high resistance to corrosion and high resistance to irradiation. Oxide dispersion strengthening (ODS) ferritic steels are considered to be most adequate for the cladding material because of their high strength at elevated temperature. In this work, "Super ODS steel" that has better corrosion resistance than 9Cr-ODS steel, has been developed for application to cladding of a variety of next generation nuclear systems. In the following ten papers, the recent experimental results of "Super ODS steel" R&D will be presented, indicating that many unexpected preferable features were found in the mechanical properties of nano-sized oxide dispersion high-Cr ODS ferritic steel. A series of paper begins with alloy design of "Super ODS steel". Corrosion issue requires Cr concentration more than 14wt.%, but aging embrittlement issue requires less than 16wt.%. An addition of 4wt.%Al is effective to improve corrosion resistance of 16wt.%Cr-ODS steel in supercritical water (SCW) and lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE), while it is detrimental to high-temperature strength. Additions of 2wt.%W and 0.1wt.%Ti are necessary to keep high strength at elevated temperatures. An addition of small amount of Zr or Hf results in a significant increase in creep strength at 700 C in Al added ODS steels. Tube manufacturing was successfully done for the super ODS steel candidates. "Super ODS steel" is promising for the fuel cladding material of next generation nuclear systems, and the R&D is now ready to proceed to the next stage of empirical verification.