Fuel cladding materials used for cladding in nuclear reactors

1. Fuel Cladding Materials
Aluminum Alloys

2. Presented To:
Miss Fauzia Wahid
Presented By:
Arif Ali MME-12-01
Sarmad Saeed MME-12-02
Gulfam Husain MME-12-30

3. Aluminum Alloys
• Third most abundant element in the earth’s & most abundant metal.
• Alloyed with many elements, majorly Cu, Mn, Si, Mg, Mg-Si, Zn & Li.
• Small amounts of Fe, Zr, Cr, Ti, V etc are also added.
• Two categories of alloys namely Wrought & Cast alloys.
• Wrought alloys designated by 1xxx upto 9xxx showing the major
alloying additions.
• Cast alloys designated by 1xx.x upto 9xx.x just like wrought alloys.

4. Designation

5. Fuel Cladding Material
• Cladding is the outer layer of the fuel
rods, standing between the coolant and
the nuclear fuel.
• It is used to provide a combination of
mechanical properties & corrosion
resistance.
• The purpose of cladding in a nuclear
reactor is two fold:
i. Cladding gives the physical
configuration by housing fuel pellets
ii. Cladding retains the fission products
and prevents direct contact between
coolant and fuel

6. Contd..
• The cladding material should possess the following properties for its normal
operation:
Ductility
Impact strength
Creep Resistance
Ease of fabrication
Resistance to corrosion by coolant
High MP
High thermal conductivity
low absorption cross section for neutrons
Chemically inert

7. Contd..
• The following materials are commonly used as the fuel cladding
materials:
Zircaloy
Stainless Steels
Magnesium(Magnox)
 Fe-Cr-Al alloys
SiC
Aluminum alloys

8. Aluminum Alloys As Fuel cladding Materials
• Aluminum & its alloys are used as cladding materials in research
reactors fuel elements as:
 It has adequate oxidation resistance & mechanical properties at
moderate temperature around 100°C.
It has low thermal neutron capture cross section value i.e. 0.23 barns
High thermal conductivity.
Freedom from corrosion at low temperature.

9. Contd..
• Most of the fuels are cladded with pure aluminum.
• Al alloys are also used as cladding materials most commonly 5000 &
6000 series.
• Al alloys to be used as cladding materials are those which are either
strengthened by solid solution strengthening or by precipitation
hardening.
• AA6061, AA5456 & AA5052 are commonly used as the fuel cladding
materials.

10. Contd..
• Aluminum alloy type 1100 which is nearly pure aluminum(greater
than 99%) is also used.
• It is used in in low power, water-cooled research, training, and
materials testing reactors in which the operating temperatures are
below 100°C.
• Aluminum is also used as fuel cladding material for pressurized and
boiling water reactors operating in the moderate temperature range.

11. Problems
• It losses strength & corrosion properties at high temperature.
• Alloying additions can improve these properties but at expense of
neutron absorption cross section.
• In water reactors, Al can be used upto 100°C because of corrosion
problems at higher temperatures.

12. References
• Selection of Materials for Reactor
Internals by K.S. Rajan (Professor, School of Chemical & Biotechnology
SASTRA University ).
• Nuclear Reactor Materials and Fuels by Massoud T. Simnad (University of California, San Diego).
• Aluminum cladding oxidation of prefilmed in-pile fueled experiments
W.R. Marcum a, *, D.M. Wachs b, A.B. Robinson b, M.A. Lillo b
• Nuclear fuels e-den A Nuclear Energy Division Monograph .
• REACTOR USE OF ALUMINUM http://nuclearpowertraining.tpub.com/h1017v2/css/Reactor-Use-Of-Aluminum-109.htm
• THE QUEST FOR SAFE AND RELIABLE FUEL CLADDING
MATERIALS by Eddy S. Pino, Alfredo Y. Abe and Claudia Giovedi
www.iaea.org/inis/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/47/006/47006409.pdf
• Reactor Materials chapter 5.
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