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ABSTRACTThe effect of solution annealing and aging treatment on the intergranular carbide precipitation behavior of alloy 690 tubes for steam generators is investigated. The carbides precipitated on the grain boundaries were identified as chromium-rich M23C6carbide, which has a cube-cube orientation relationship with the matrix on one side of neighboring grains. The carbide precipitation behavior is closely related to the interaction between the solubility of carbon in Ni-based matrix and diffusion of alloying elements. The ultimate tensile strength and elongation of the solution annealed alloy 690 tubes at 300°C are 638.8 ± 12.4 MPa and 43.2 ± 4.2%, respectively. In the early stage of precipitation, the ultimate tensile strength increased to 720.4 ± 13.5 MPa. The carbides function as reinforcement in alloy 690 and provide strength enhancement with aging time reached 15 hours. However, when the aging time passed 15 hours, this property gradually decreased to 710.6 ± 12.6 MPa due to the low bonding strength between the carbide and matrix.

ABSTRACTThe isothermal and cyclic corrosion behavior of yttria (Y2O3)-stabilized zirconia (ZrO2) in a LiCl-Li2O molten salt were investigated at 650 °C in an argon atmosphere. During isothermal and cyclic corrosion tests in the molten salt of LiCl-Li2O for 168 h and 7 thermal cycles, the corrosion rate was very low, whereas under the molten salt of LiCl-Li2O-Li for 168 h, the corrosion rate was almost 10 times higher than that in the molten salt of LiCl-Li2O. No corrosion product was detected until 168 h for the isothermal corrosion test, however, after 7 thermal cycles, a very-low-intensity Li2ZrO3peak was detected at the beginning stage of the chemical reaction between ZrO2and Li2O. Additionally, in the molten salt of LiCl-Li2O-Li for 168 h, a large amount of Li2ZrO3was formed, with evidence of marked cracks, pores, and spallations on the corroded surface. The introduction of Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2was beneficial in increasing the hot corrosion resistance of the structural materials used to handle molten salts containing Li2O at elevated temperature without forming a lithium at the cathode during the electrolytic reduction process.

The welding of zirconium alloy components is one of the most critical processes in the fabrication of nuclear fuel rods used in pressurized water reactors. For this, various welding processes, such as gas tungsten arc welding, electron beam welding, laser beam welding, and resistance pressure welding (RPW), are used around the world. In Korea, the RPW process is being used to fabricate nuclear fuel assembly fuel rods. This study investigated changes in the weldment shape owing to welding conditions such as welding current, welding force, and overlapping. The welding soundness of the weldment was evaluated by hydraulic burst test. The welding temperature of the weld zone was measured using a thermal infrared method. Discontinuous black spots in the weld line, regarded as a non-bonding defect, were confirmed as spots caused by the carbide precipitation of zirconium during welding.

Pyroprocessing, which results in proliferation resistance, shows promise as an alternative to wet processing in the recycling of transuranics. However, the ceramic crucible used in the electrowinning process poses an issue during pyroprocessing. The crucible is chemically unstable and prone to thermal fatigue. In this study, the thermodynamic simulation software HSC (enthalpy, entropy and heat capacity) Chemistry was employed to evaluate the chemical stabilities of different ceramic crucibles containing liquid cadmium as well as liquid bismuth cathodes, which also contained rare earth elements and lithium. The chemical stabilities were experimentally validated by measuring the contact angles between the liquid cathode (LC) materials and four ceramic materials (Al2O3, MgO, Y2O3, and BeO) in situ. The infiltration depths of the liquid bismuth cathode elements were measured using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. To determine the Weibull distributions of the investigated ceramics, thermal fatigue tests were performed using plates of the ceramics.