Corrosion Cracking of Zirconium Cladding Tubes (A Review). I. Methods of Study and Mechanisms of Fracture

Modelling of iodine-induced stress corrosion cracking in CANDU fuel

“…The pellet-cladding interaction (PCI) may eventually lead to nucleation and propagation of cracks through wall, which frequently appear close to the pellet interface where fission products concentrate (see Fig. 1) [1,2].…”

Prediction Study on PCI Failure of Reactor Fuel Based on a Radial Basis Function Neural Network

“…PCI-induced clad tube failure is caused by a combination of stresses in the Zr-alloy clad due to the pelletclad contact pressure and chemical reaction of corrosive fission products, such as iodine released during operation, with Zr-alloy under a power ramp. If the induced stresses in the clad are sufficiently large and the concentration of the fission product is high, clad failure may occur [2,3]. PCI has been a topic of numerous experimental and computational studies with a great amount of accumulated field experience.…”

Atomistic Simulations of Formation of Elementary Zr-I Systems

“…Considerable amounts of research have been performed regarding zirconium and zirconium-based alloys in the past few decades, due to usage in cladding for light water nuclear reactors (LWR).Stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) of the cladding has been observed [2] over the course of fuel-cycle lifetimes in nuclear reactors; the exact initiation of which, however, remains yet unclear [3,4]. Much research has been done regarding iodine-influenced SCC, (I-SCC), which regards iodine as a strong accelerating factor in the corrosion of the zirconium cladding [5][6][7].…”