Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate the behavior of zinc incorporation into newly forming fuel deposits and pre-formed deposits in a simulated pressurized water reactor coolant including 1000 ppm of boron and 2 ppm of lithium at 328 °C. Zinc was incorporated into fuel deposits that were being newly nucleated and grown on nuclear fuel cladding tubes in a zinc-containing coolant. The zinc incorporation resulted in a decrease in the lattice constant of the deposits, which was attributed to the decrease in larger iron content and the corresponding incorporation of smaller zinc in the deposits. However, zinc incorporation was not found, even after the fuel deposits pre-formed before zinc addition were subsequently exposed to the 60 ppb of zinc coolant for 500 h.
Highlights
Zinc addition into a reactor coolant system (RCS) was first applied at Hope Creek Unit for a boiling water reactor (BWR) in 1987 and Farley Unit 2 for a pressurized water reactor (PWR) in 1994 [1,2].The original purpose of the zinc addition was to suppress the buildup of radiation fields, and since plant experience has demonstrated that zinc addition significantly decreases dose rates
The decrease in radiation fields from zinc addition is ascribed to a reduction of the corrosion release rates for 59 Co and 58 Ni from the surfaces of RCS materials [4,5,6], especially Ni-based Alloy 600 or 690 steam-generator tubes
This paper focuses on the behavior of zinc incorporation into fuel deposits on zirconium-based fuel cladding tubes being newly formed after zinc addition and having already been formed before zinc addition into the simulated RCS coolant at 328 ◦ C
Summary
Zinc addition into a reactor coolant system (RCS) was first applied at Hope Creek Unit for a boiling water reactor (BWR) in 1987 and Farley Unit 2 for a pressurized water reactor (PWR) in 1994 [1,2].The original purpose of the zinc addition was to suppress the buildup of radiation fields, and since plant experience has demonstrated that zinc addition significantly decreases dose rates. Zinc addition into a reactor coolant system (RCS) was first applied at Hope Creek Unit for a boiling water reactor (BWR) in 1987 and Farley Unit 2 for a pressurized water reactor (PWR) in 1994 [1,2]. The decrease in radiation fields from zinc addition is ascribed to a reduction of the corrosion release rates for 59 Co and 58 Ni from the surfaces of RCS materials [4,5,6], especially Ni-based Alloy 600 or 690 steam-generator tubes. Because the zinc-incorporated oxides are thermodynamically more stable and protective [5,11,12], the corrosion and corrosion release rates of the RCS materials are significantly mitigated, resulting in a reduction of the radiation source term
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