The measurement of silver diffusivity in zirconium carbide to study the release behavior of 110mAg in the ZrC TRISO-coated nuclear fuel particle

Abstract

The tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) coated particle fuel has been developed and used for high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs). It provides a unique robustness of the first barrier for the fission products. The TRISO fuel particle has typically consisted of a UO2 or UCO kernel, surrounded by successive layers of porous carbon, dense inner pyrocarbon, silicon carbide, and dense outer pyrocarbon. During operation, however, the SiC layer has been known to release radioactive silver 110mAg which makes maintenance more difficult and thus costly. Zirconium carbide has been considered as a promising alternative to the SiC fission product barrier. ZrC exhibits high temperature stability and possibly possesses superior Pd resistance, while the retention properties especially for silver have not been adequately studied.To help elucidate the diffusive behavior of silver in the ZrC coating of the TRISO-coated particle, a new diffusion experimental technique, called the encapsulating source method, has been developed by constructing a constant source diffusion couple between ZrC and Ag gas originated from Zr–Ag solid solution. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and optical methods were used to analyze the diffusion couple annealed at 1500 °C. The resultant diffusion coefficient of Ag in single-crystalline ZrC0.84 at 1500 °C was experimentally determined to be about 2.8 (±1.2) × 10−17 m2/s.