Alloy design and characterization of a recrystallized FeCrAl-ODS cladding for accident-tolerant BWR fuels; An Overview of research activity in Japan

Ukai, Shigeharu; Sakamoto, Kan*; Otsuka, Satoshi; Yamashita, Shinichiro; Kimura, Akihiko*

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 583, p.154508_1 - 154508_24, 2023/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2023.154508

Dislocation-climbing bypass over dispersoids with different lattice misfit in creep deformation of FeCrAl oxide dispersion-strengthened alloys

Ukai, Shigeharu; Yamashita, Shinichiro

Journal of Materials Research and Technology, 16, p.891 - 898, 2022/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.11.123

The creep strain rate of FeCrAl oxide dispersion-strengthened alloys, as a promising accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding of the light-water reactors, is accelerated in YAlO dispersoids by two to three orders of magnitude compared with YZrO dispersoid at 1273K and even occurs at an applied stress less than threshold stress for dislocation detachment. Two approaches were carried out to interpret new findings and to clarify their mechanism. By optimizing the relaxation of the dislocation line energy at the dispersoid interface, numerical analyses proved the accelerated dislocation-climbing in the YAlO dispersoids. The other is a more atomistic approach. The climbing force on the dislocation induced by the stress field around the dispersoid was analyzed in terms of the Peach-Koehler relationship. The accelerated creep strain rate in YAlO dispersoids is attributed to a larger climbing force induced by larger lattice misfit with less coherency in YAlO dispersoid.

Microstructure and texture evolution and ring-tensile properties of recrystallized FeCrAl ODS cladding tubes

Aghamiri, S. M. S.*; Sowa, Takashi*; Ukai, Shigeharu*; Ono, Naoko*; Sakamoto, Kan*; Yamashita, Shinichiro

Materials Science & Engineering A, 771, p.138636_1 - 138636_12, 2020/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2019.138636

Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) FeCrAl ferritic steels are being developed as potential accident tolerance fuel cladding materials for the light water reactors (LWRs) due to significant improvement in steam oxidation by alumina forming scale and good mechanical properties up to high temperatures. In this study, the microstructural characteristics and tensile properties of the two FeCrAl ODS cladding tubes with different extrusion temperatures of 1100C and 1150C were investigated during processing conditions. While the hot extruded sample showed micron sized elongated grains with strong -fiber in 110 texture, cold pilger rolling process change the microstructure to submicron/micron size grain structure along with texture evolution to both -fiber (110 texture) and -fiber ({111} texture) via crystalline rotations. Subsequently, final annealing resulted in evolution of microstructure to large grain recrystallized structure starting at recrystallization temperature of 810-850C. Two distinct texture development happened in recrystallized cladding tubes, i.e., only large elongated grains of (110) 211 texture following extrusion temperature of 1100C; and two texture components of (110) 211 and {111} 112 following higher extrusion temperature of 1150C. The different texture development and retarding of recrystallization progress in 1100C-extruded cladding tubes were attributed to higher distribution of oxide particles.

Overview of accident-tolerant fuel R&D program in Japan

Yamashita, Shinichiro; Ioka, Ikuo; Nemoto, Yoshiyuki; Kawanishi, Tomohiro; Kurata, Masaki; Kaji, Yoshiyuki; Fukahori, Tokio; Nozawa, Takashi*; Sato, Daiki*; Murakami, Nozomu*; et al.

Proceedings of International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference / Light Water Reactor Fuel Performance Conference (Global/Top Fuel 2019) (USB Flash Drive), p.206 - 216, 2019/09

After the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant, research and development (R&D) program for establishing technical basis of accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) started from 2015 in Japan. Since then, both experimental and analytical studies necessary for designing a new light water reactor (LWR) core with ATF candidate materials are being conducted within the Japanese ATF R&D Consortium for implementing ATF to the existing LWRs, accompanying with various technological developments required. Until now, we have accumulated experimental data of the candidate materials by out-of-pile tests, developed fuel evaluation codes to apply to the ATF candidate materials, and evaluated fuel behavior simulating operational and accidental conditions by the developed codes. In this paper, the R&D progresses of the ATF candidate materials considered in Japan are reviewed based on the information available such as proceedings of international conference and academic papers, providing an overview of ATF program in Japan.

Ion irradiation effects on FeCrAl-ODS ferritic steel

Kondo, Keietsu; Aoki, So; Yamashita, Shinichiro; Ukai, Shigeharu*; Sakamoto, Kan*; Hirai, Mutsumi*; Kimura, Akihiko*

Nuclear Materials and Energy (Internet), 15, p.13 - 16, 2018/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nme.2018.05.022

Radiation hardening and microstructural evolution of ion irradiated 12Cr-6Al ODS ferritic steel was studied. Ion irradiation experiments were performed using Fe ions up to the nominal displacement damage of 20 dpa at the irradiation temperature was 300C. The monotonical increase of radiation hardening with dose was confirmed by experimentally obtained hardness data. The radiation hardening was also calculated theoretically by introducing the microstructural character examined by TEM into the dispersed barrier hardening model. The results showed a good agreement with the experimentally obtained data up to 5 dpa, while a slight discrepancy was found between theoretical and experimental hardness values at 20 dpa. Radiation hardening was mainly caused by irradiation-induced defect clusters below the irradiation dose of 5 dpa. As the irradiation dose increased toward 20 dpa, an additional influence of the radiation appeared, which was assumed to be induced by ' phase transformation.

Fuel behavior analysis for accident tolerant fuel with sic cladding using adapted FEMAXI-7 code

Shirasu, Noriko; Saito, Hiroaki; Yamashita, Shinichiro; Nagase, Fumihisa

Proceedings of 2017 Water Reactor Fuel Performance Meeting (WRFPM 2017) (USB Flash Drive), 8 Pages, 2017/09

http://wrfpm2017.org/upload/draft_file/F-226-PD5.pdf

Silicon carbide (SiC) is an attractive candidate of accident tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding material because of its high chemical stability, high radiation resistance and low neutron absorption. FEMAXI-ATF has been developed to analysis SiC cladding fuel behaviors. The thermal, mechanical and irradiation property models were implemented to FEMAXI-7, which is a fuel behavior analysis code being developed in JAEA. Fuel rod behavior analysis was performed under typical boiling water reactor (BWR) operating conditions with a model based on a 99 BWR fuel (Step III Type B), in which the cladding material was replaced from Zircaloy to SiC. The SiC cladding shows large swelling by irradiation. It increases the gap size and decreases cladding thermal conductivity. The mechanism of relaxation of stress is also different from the Zircaloy cladding. The experimental data for SiC materials are still insufficient to construct the models, especially for evaluating fracture behavior.

Analytical study of the applicability of FeCrAl-ODS cladding for BWR

Takano, Sho*; Kusagaya, Kazuyuki*; Goto, Daisuke*; Sakamoto, Kan*; Yamashita, Shinichiro

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-032-PD1.pdf

We focused on one of accident tolerant fuel (ATF) materials, Oxide Dispersion Strengthened Fe-Cr-Al Steel (FeCrAl-ODS). There is a reasonable prospect that FeCrAl-ODS is applied to BWRs, but relatively high neutron absorption should be compensated. To decrease adverse neutron economic impact, thin FeCrAl-ODS cladding was designed, and we evaluated characteristics of a core into which 99 Advanced BWR (ABWR) bundles with thin FeCrAl-ODS claddings were loaded. Thin FeCrAl-ODS water rods and channel boxes were also applied. We confirmed that FeCrAl-ODS core reactivity was sufficient by increasing enrichment of UO fuel under the limit of 5 wt%. Moreover, some representative FeCrAl-ODS core characteristics were comparable to zircaloy core. We also confirmed that fuel thermal-mechanical behaviors of thin FeCrAl-ODS cladding at normal operation and transient conditions were acceptable. These results led to a conclusion that FeCrAl-ODS was applicable to BWR in the analysis range of this study.

Welding technology R&D of Japanese accident tolerant fuel claddings of FeCrAl-ODS steel for BWRS

Kimura, Akihiko*; Yuzawa, Sho*; Sakamoto, Kan*; Hirai, Mutsumi*; Kusagaya, Kazuyuki*; Yamashita, Shinichiro

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-059-PD1.pdf

The effect of Al addition on the PRW weldability of ODS steel is shown with the discussion focusing on the microstructure changes by the welding. The ordinary welding methods including electron beam (EB) welding and tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding were also applied to the SUS430 endcap welding to cladding tube made of FeCrAl-ODS steel. The endcap welded ODS steel tube samples were tensile tested at RT. The EB welded FeCrAl-ODS/SUS430 samples broke in the ODS steel tube, indicating that the weld bond is stronger than the ODS base metal. However, the TIG welded FeCrAl-ODS/SUS430 samples broke at a weld bond. X-ray CT scan analysis was performed for the weld bond, and the bonding strength was correlated with the X-ray CT results in order to assess the feasibility of those welding methods for ATF-ODS steel cladding.

Overview of Japanese development of accident tolerant FeCrAl-ODS fuel claddings for BWRs

Sakamoto, Kan*; Hirai, Mutsumi*; Ukai, Shigeharu*; Kimura, Akihiko*; Yamaji, Akifumi*; Kusagaya, Kazuyuki*; Kondo, Takao*; Yamashita, Shinichiro

Proceedings of 2017 Water Reactor Fuel Performance Meeting (WRFPM 2017) (USB Flash Drive), 7 Pages, 2017/09

http://www.wrfpm2017.org/upload/draft_file/D_033-PD1.pdf

This paper will show the overview of current status of development of accident tolerant FeCrAl-ODS fuel claddings for BWRs (boiling water reactors) in the program sponsored and organized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan. This program is being carried out to create the technical basis for the practical use of the accident tolerant fuels and the other components in LWRs through multifaceted activities. In the development of FeCrAl-ODS fuel claddings both the experimental and the analytical studies have been performed. The acquisition and accumulation of key material properties of FeCrAl-ODS fuel claddings were conducted by using bar, sheet and tube shaped FeCrAl-ODS materials fabricated in this program to support the evaluations in the analytical studies. A neutron irradiation test was also started in the ORNL High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) to examine the effect of neutron irradiation on the mechanical properties.

FEMAXI-7 prediction of the behavior of BWR-type accident tolerant fuel rod with FeCrAl-ODS steel cladding in normal condition

Yamaji, Akifumi*; Yamasaki, Daiki*; Okada, Tomoya*; Sakamoto, Kan*; Yamashita, Shinichiro

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-043-PD4.pdf

Features of the accident tolerant fuel performance were evaluated with FEMAXI-7 when the current Zircaloy(Zry) cladding is replaced with FeCrAl-ODS steel cladding (a type of oxide dispersion strengthened steel being developed under the Project on Development of Technical Basis for Safety Improvement at Nuclear Power Plants by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan) for BWR 99 type fuel rod. In particular, influences of the creep strain rate and thickness of the ODS cladding on the fuel temperature, fission gas release rate (FGR) and pellet-cladding mechanical interaction (PCMI) are investigated.