Areva Np Gmbh

Véronique Rebeyrolle

Pierre Barberis

Jean-Jérôme Vermoyal

Jean-Paul Mardon

Petra-Britt Hoffmann

Jean-Luc Aubin

A zirconium alloy that is resistant to shadow corrosion for a boiling water nuclear reactor fuel assembly component, the alloy being characterized in that: A fuel assembly component made of the alloy, a fuel assembly including the component, and the use thereof.

Zirconium alloy resistant to corrosion in drop shadows for a fuel assembly component for a boiling water reactor, component produced using said alloy, fuel assembly, and use of same

A method for design of a fuel assembly for nuclear reactors, including structural components made from zirconium alloy: the mean uniaxial tensile or compressive stress to which the components are subjected during the assembly life is calculated, the zirconium alloy of which the components are made is selected according to the following criteria: those components subjected to an axial or transverse compressive stress of between &#x2212;10 et &#x2212;20 MPa are made from an alloy with a content of Sn between Sn=(=0.025&#x3c3;&#x2212;0.25)% and Sn=&#x2212;0.05&#x3c3;%: those components subjected to such a stress of between 0 et &#x2212;10 MPa are made from an alloy the Sn content of which is between Sn=traces and Sn=(0.05&#x3c3;+1)%: those components subjected to such a stress of between 0 and +10 MPa are made from an alloy the Sn content of which is between Sn=0.05% and Sn=(0.07&#x3c3;+1)%: and those components subjected to such a stress of between +10 and +20 MPa are made from an alloy the content of SN of which is between 0.05% and 1.70%. A fuel assembly made according to the method.

Method for designing a fuel assembly optimized as a function of the stresses in use in light-water nuclear reactors, and resulting fuel assembly

A method for production of a fuel cladding tube for a nuclear reactor, characterized by the preparation of an ingot of an alloy of zirconium with the following composition by weight %: 0.8%&#x2266;Nb&#x2266;2.8%, traces&#x2266;Sn&#x2266;0.65%, 0.015%&#x2266;Fe&#x2266;0.40%, C&#x2266;100 ppm, 600 ppm&#x2266;O&#x2266;2300 ppm, 5 ppm&#x2266;S&#x2266;100 ppm, Cr+V&#x2266;0.25%, Hf&#x2266;75 ppm and F&#x2266;1 ppm the remainder being zirconium and impurities arising from production. The ingot is then subjected to forging, a hardening and thermomoechanical treatments comprising cold laminations separated by intermediate annealing, all intermediate annealings being carried out at a temperature below the &#x3b1;&#x2192;&#x3b1;+&#x3b2; transition temperature of the alloy, finishing with a recrystallization annealing and resulting in the production of a tube, whereupon an optional external cleaning of the tube is carried out and a mechanical polishing of the external surface of the tube is carried out to give a roughness Ra less than or equal to 0.5 &#x3bc;m. The invention further relates to a fuel cladding tube obtained thereby.

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Duingt, France

Véronique Rebeyrolle