Abstract
Increase of rod diameters and cracking of PWR control rod claddings may occur in operation. In order to understand the contribution of the absorber properties to this damage, EDF and FRAMATOME launched a programme of examinations concerning the silver–indium–cadmium alloy constituting the absorber bars. Density measurements and microstructural investigations such as micrography, microanalysis were carried out in the EDF Hot Laboratory, X-ray diffraction was performed by CEA. The results show that transmutations induce chemical modifications inside the fcc alloy and, further, formation of an hcp phase similar to the ζ phase of the silver alloys. The chemical and crystallographic changes account for the major part of the absorber swelling.
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