Improving the corrosion resistance of silicon carbide for fuel in BWR environments by using a metal coating

Ishibashi, Ryo*; Tanabe, Shigetada*; Kondo, Takao*; Yamashita, Shinichiro; Nagase, Fumihisa

Proceedings of 2017 Water Reactor Fuel Performance Meeting (WRFPM 2017) (USB Flash Drive), 10 Pages, 2017/09

http://www.wrfpm2017.org/upload/draft_file/F-177-PD1.pdf

For improving the corrosion resistance of silicon carbide (SiC) in boiling-water-reactor environments, corrosion-resistant coatings on SiC were evaluated. Due to its hydrogen-generation rate and reaction heat being lower than those of conventional Zircaloy, SiC is expected to be an appropriate material for accident-tolerant fuels. However, there are still many critical issues with the practical application of SiC fuel cladding and fuel channel boxes, one of which is hydrothermal corrosion. Silicon carbide is chemically stable, but silicon oxide formed by oxidation of SiC dissolves in high temperature water. Although the rate of SiC dissolution is very small, the dissolution must be suppressed to comply with regulations for dissolved silica concentration in reactor coolant. In this study, the corrosion behavior of candidate coatings for SiC substrates were evaluated before and after exposure to unirradiated high-purity-water environments.