Examination of cadmium safety rod thermal test specimens and failure mechanism evaluation

Abstract

The reactor safety rods may be subjected to high temperatures due to gamma heating after the core coolant level has dropped during the ECS phase of a hypothetical LOCA event. Accordingly, an experimental cadmium safety rod testing subtask was established as part of a task to address the response of reactor core components to this accident. Companion reports describe the experiments and a structural evaluation (finite element analysis) of the safety rod. This report deals primarily with the examination of the test specimens, evaluation of possible failure mechanisms, and confirmatory separate effects experiments. It is concluded that the failures observed in the cadmium safety rod thermal tests which occurred at low temperature (T < 600{degrees}C) with slow thermal ramp rates (slow cladding strain rates) resulted from localized dissolution of the stainless steel cladding by the cadmium/aluminum solution and subsequent ductility exhaustion and rupture. The slow thermal ramp rate is believed to be the root cause for the failures; specifically, the slow ramp rate led to localized cladding shear deformation which ruptured the protective oxide film on the cladding inner surface and allowed dissolution to initiate. The test results and proposed failure mechanism support the conclusion that the rods would not fail below 500{degrees}C even at slow ramp rates. The safety rod thermal test specimen failures which occurred at high temperature (T > 800{degrees}C) with fast thermal ramp rates are concluded to be mechanical in nature without significant environmental degradation. Based on these tests, tasks were initiated to design and manufacture B{sub 4}C safety rods to replace the cadmium safety rods. The B{sub 4}C safety rods have been manufactured at this time and it is currently planned to charge them to the reactor in the near future. 60 refs.