Hydrotalcite and Boehmite coatings for increased protection of Aluminum clad spent nuclear fuel

• Autor(a) principal: FERNANDES, STELA M.C.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: CORREA, OLANDIR V., SOUZA, JOSE A. de, RAMANATHAN, LALGUDI V., CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO DE CORROSAO, 32.; INTERNATIONAL CORROSION MEETING, 4th
• Tipo de documento: Artigo de conferência
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional do IPEN
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.ipen.br/handle/123456789/17701
• topic: iear-1 reactor; aluminium; cladding; coatings; pitting corrosion; corrosion resistance; spent fuel storage; wet storage; rare earths

It is essential to increase the corrosion resistance of Al-clad research reactor (RR) spent fuels during long term wet storage. Laboratory and field tests were carried out to evaluate the pitting corrosion resistance of rare earth containing conversion coatings on Al alloys, AA 1100 and AA 6061, used as cladding of RR fuel plates. These investigations were extended to include boehmite and hydrotalcite (HTC) coatings on Al alloy surfaces. Characterization of the coatings was done with the aid of SEM/FEG/EDS and x-ray diffraction analysis. The electrochemical behavior of uncoated and coated specimens was determined in 0.1 M NaCl. Field tests were carried out in which uncoated, lanthanide-based conversion coated, boehmite coated, cerium modified boehmite coated, HTC coated and cerium modified HTC coated Al alloy coupons were exposed to the IEA-R1 reactor spent fuel basin for varying periods and then their corrosion resistance evaluated. Most of the coatings increased the pitting corrosion resistance of the two alloys and among the coatings, the cerium modified HTC coating was the most efficient.