TY - JOUR
T1 - Hydrogen pickup measurements in zirconium alloys
T2 - Relation to oxidation kinetics
AU - Couet, Adrien
AU - Motta, Arthur T.
AU - Comstock, Robert J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the financial support from Westinghouse Electric Company and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and especially thank Rick L. Paul at NIST for his invaluable assistance in performing CNPGAA measurements. They also would like to thank the Penn State Radiation Science and Engineering Center and, especially, Dağıstan Sahin for sharing his expert knowledge on gamma-ray activation analysis. The authors would also like to thank the community of the MUZIC-2 research program for helpful discussions.
Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - The optimization of zirconium-based alloys used for nuclear fuel cladding aims to reduce hydrogen pickup during operation, and the associated cladding degradation. The present study focuses on precisely and accurately measuring hydrogen pickup fraction for a set of alloys to specifically investigate the effects of alloying elements, microstructure and corrosion kinetics on hydrogen uptake. To measure hydrogen concentrations in zirconium alloys two techniques have been used: a destructive technique, Vacuum Hot Extraction, and a non-destructive one, Cold Neutron Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis. The results of both techniques show that hydrogen pickup fraction varies significantly with exposure time and between alloys. A possible interpretation of the results is that hydrogen pickup results from the need to balance charge. That is, the pickup of hydrogen shows an inverse relationship to oxidation kinetics, indicating that, if transport of charged species is rate limiting, oxide transport properties such as oxide electronic conductivity play a key role in the hydrogen pickup mechanism. Alloying elements (either in solid solution or in precipitates) would therefore impact the hydrogen pickup fraction by affecting charge transport.
AB - The optimization of zirconium-based alloys used for nuclear fuel cladding aims to reduce hydrogen pickup during operation, and the associated cladding degradation. The present study focuses on precisely and accurately measuring hydrogen pickup fraction for a set of alloys to specifically investigate the effects of alloying elements, microstructure and corrosion kinetics on hydrogen uptake. To measure hydrogen concentrations in zirconium alloys two techniques have been used: a destructive technique, Vacuum Hot Extraction, and a non-destructive one, Cold Neutron Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis. The results of both techniques show that hydrogen pickup fraction varies significantly with exposure time and between alloys. A possible interpretation of the results is that hydrogen pickup results from the need to balance charge. That is, the pickup of hydrogen shows an inverse relationship to oxidation kinetics, indicating that, if transport of charged species is rate limiting, oxide transport properties such as oxide electronic conductivity play a key role in the hydrogen pickup mechanism. Alloying elements (either in solid solution or in precipitates) would therefore impact the hydrogen pickup fraction by affecting charge transport.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2014.03.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2014.03.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84898066479
SN - 0022-3115
VL - 451
SP - 1
EP - 13
JO - Journal of Nuclear Materials
JF - Journal of Nuclear Materials
IS - 1-3
ER -