Oxidation of boron carbide at high temperatures

Early phase fuel degradation in Phébus FP: Initiating phenomena of degradation in fuel bundle tests

“…It is noteworthy that a similar result has been reported (Haste et al, 2010) in B 4 C tests in the integral QUENCH series (Sepold et al, 2006) performed at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in separate-effects tests performed at KIT (BOX facility, Steinbrück, 2005) and in separate-effects tests performed at IRSN Cadarache (the BECARRE series under the International Source Term Programme (ISTP), (Dominguez et al, 2008). The absence of methane for core meltdown accident conditions is of importance for radiological consequences for this type of accident, because a large amount of methane in the containment would favour the production of volatile methyl iodide, a gas which is likely to increase the radioactive iodine releases to the environment in the case of a containment breach.…”

Modeling of boron carbide oxidation in steam

“…Recently, a separate-effects test program on boron carbide has been taken up at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe [7,8] application in safety codes. In a first step, a parametric model for the BOX tests [7] with single pellets in a cross-flow position of a circular reaction tube in laminar flow and also for the thermo-balance tests [8] will be developed.…”

Micrometric rods grown by nanosecond pulsed laser deposition of boron carbide

“…Therefore oxygen and nitrogen in the films have their origin, not only in the presence of these elements as impurities in the target material and in the residual atmosphere of the PLD chamber, but are also due to contamination of deposited material by air. The oxygen atoms incorporated in the films are mainly bound to boron, due to the high reactivity between these two elements, and testify the poor oxidation resistance of B 4 C [24]. However, nitrogen is easily bounded to carbon to form CN bonds.…”