[2H03-09] HTGR Fuel

[2H08] Development of Security and Safety Fuel for Pu-burner HTGR

(27) Test and Characterization for ZrC Coating

*Shohei UETA¹, Jun AIHARA¹, Naoki MIZUTA¹, Yukio TACHIBANA¹, Kazuhiko KUNITOMI¹, Koji OKAMOTO² (1. JAEA, 2. Univ. Tokyo)

Keywords:Coated fuel particle, Zirconium carbide, ZrC, Chemical vapor deposition, Coating test, Characterization

To extend burnup of security and safety fuel for Pu-burner HTGR, zirconium carbide (ZrC) acting as an oxygen getter is coated directly on the inert matrix fuel kernel. In the fiscal year 2017, ZrC layer with the thickness of about 18 μm has been coated successfully on CeO₂-YSZ (cerium dioxide - yttria stabilized zirconia) dummy fuel kernel with the diameter of 0.4 mm, and then the chemical vapor deposition condition has demonstrated reproducibility of stoichiometric ZrC coating and contributed to obtaining growing rate of ZrC. Also, the material properties at the boundary between ZrC and CeO₂-YSZ was characterized by Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM).