Examination of the chemical composition of irradiated zirconium based fuel claddings at the metal/oxide interface by TEM

Detailed post-irradiation examinations have been performed at PSI on three fuel rods with differing cladding materials revealing different corrosion behaviour. The rods had been irradiated for 3–5 cycles at Gösgen nuclear power plant (pressurised water reactor), Switzerland. As zirconium corrosion is proceeding at the metal/oxide interface, extended micro-structural analyses were performed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), expecting to possibly reveal phenomena explaining the varying corrosion resistance. This paper reports on the distribution of oxygen at the metal/oxide interface examined by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) in TEM, while other micro-structural investigations have been published earlier [1]. In order to get some statistical confidence in the analyses, three neighbouring TEM samples of each cladding variant were studied. The oxygen concentration profiles of the three alloys (i.e. low-tin Zircaloy-4, Zr2.5%Nb and extra low-tin (Sn 0.56%)) both in the oxide and metal close to the metal/oxide interface are compared. The results of the examinations show the composition of the oxide in the vicinity of the interface to be sub-stoichiometric for all three materials, indicating an oxide layer adjacent to the interface, with diffusion-controlled access of oxygen to the metal/oxide interface. The metallic parts show highest oxygen concentrations at the metal/oxide interface which are reduced towards the bulk metal, pointing towards the expected second diffusion-controlled process leading to α-Zr (O). Based on the experimental results values for the diffusion coefficients in the range of 0.8–6.0×10−20m2s−1 are estimated for the oxygen dissolution process, the diffusion coefficient in Zircaloy-4 being six times higher than for the other two less corroding alloys. This finding is in contradiction with the present assumptions about the corrosion mechanism, and confirms the expected but not so far reported diffusion controlled oxidation of different zirconium alloys. It also points towards a corrosion rate that is at least partly governed by the diffusion coefficient of oxygen in metal that is different for different alloys, unlike what has been assumed till present.