Previous experiments showed that the thickness of a thick prior-oxide layer formed on Zircaloy-4 fuel cladding can decrease during the first seconds at very high-temperature, before re-growing. We confirmed these results with oxidations performed at 1200 • C on prior-oxidized Zircaloy-4. The initial reduction of the prior-oxide was explained by the balance of the oxygen fluxes at the metal/oxide interface and successfully reproduced by numerical simulations using a diffusion-reaction model. Different hypotheses were considered for the diffusion coefficients of oxygen in the different layers. This allowed discussing the effect of the prior-oxidation on the kinetics of oxygen embrittlement of the metallic substrate. Abbreviations: ␣ red , ␣Zr(O) phase formed by reduction of the low temperature oxide layer; Exp, experimental, i.e. data link with experimental results; EKINOX-Zr, Estimation KINetics OXidation numerical model for Zr alloys; HCP, hexagonal close-packed; HT, high temperature; HTox/HT ZrO2, oxide layer formed at high temperature (T ≥ 1000 • C); LOCA, loss-of-coolant-accident; LT, Low temperature, i.e. the in-service temperature of the PWR (T≈320 • C); LTox/LT ZrO2, oxide layer formed at low temperature; Num., numerical, i.e. data link to numerical results; PBR, Pilling-Bedworth ratio; Prior-Zr, phase formed from the cooling of Zr phase stable at high temperature; PWR, pressurized-light-water-reactor.
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