Radiation tests of products made of calcium-thermal zirconium grade СTZ-110 under operation of the VVER-440 reactor

Abstract

The paper presents the results of reactor tests of fuel assemblies with cladding made of zirconium alloy grade СTZ-110 at the material testing reactor of National Research Center (NRC) "Kurchatov Institute" at Novovoronezh and Leningrad NPP under various nuclear fuel burnups. It was shown that after all test cycles, the parts from zirconium in the fuel assemblies were in good condition, which was confirmed by metal research of the samples cut out from the fuel elements. The mechanical properties of the fuel cladding made of СTZ-110 alloy are stable and satisfactory. Maximum burn-outs were achieved in the VVER-1000 mode of 67.4 MW·day/kg of uranium and the RBMK-1000 mode – 76.0 MW·day/kg of uranium.

Keywords

• zirconium
• zircalloy
• chlorine
• extraction
• extractor
• quality
• electron beam technology
• reactor
• nuclear fuel.