Abstract
Irradiation tests of a BWR advanced Zr alloy (HiFi alloy) and Zircaloy-2 (Zry-2) were carried out in a Japanese commercial reactor and the irradiation performances of the materials were investigated. HiFi alloy and Zry-2 showed excellent resistance to corrosion up to 70 GWd/t, and furthermore, HiFi kept lower hydrogen pickup compared with Zry-2. TEM observation showed that the Fe/(Fe+Cr) ratio of Zr(Fe,Cr)2 type second phase particles (SPPs) for HiFi alloy and Zry-2 tended to decrease as fast neutron fluence increased and to saturate at high fluence. Zr-Fe-Cr SPPs did not completely disappear even for 6 cycles for the irradiated HiFi alloy and Zry-2. In order to clarify the mechanism of hydrogen absorption, an electrochemical technique was used for the oxide film of both materials as part of the out-of-pile test. The relation between the oxide surface potential and the hydrogen pickup fraction was estimated suggesting that the potential difference over the oxide film suppressed hydrogen (proton) diffusion in the oxide film.
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