The effect of neon bombardment on the corrosion of Zr

Influence of light ion irradiation of the oxide layer on the oxidation rate of zircaloy-4: Irradiation of the post-transition oxide layer

“…It describes quite well the evolution of the oxidation kinetics after irradiation. The accelerating factor (~2-3) found with ions in this study is quite close to that measured between cladding corroded in autoclave and in PWR at low burnup [17,3] but the oxide layers formed in reactor are significantly thicker than those studied previously in the references [18,19,20,21,22] which were obtained during the pre-transition kinetics stage (<2µm).…”

“…1. Experiments with isotopic markers of oxygen, 18 O, have been performed in primary water enriched in 18 O at 20% to follow the oxygen diffusion through the bi-layer oxide structure and determine the effect of irradiation on the diffusion processes;…”

“…Usual corrosion tests in autoclave have been done and the oxidation kinetics has been followed by weight gains. Then, after each isotopic exposure time (6 hours, 24 hours etc…), 18 O diffusion profiles are studied using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. Raman spectra are also acquired from the surface to follow the evolution of irradiation defect concentration.…”

“…However few studies in the literature dealt with the irradiation effect of thin nanometric oxide films on the corrosion behavior of Zy4. They showed a significant increase of the corrosion rate and these results were interpreted either by the effect of metal irradiation [18] or in terms of electric field effect or oxygen diffusion paths through the dislocations induced by irradiation [19]. Progress was recently made on the influence of irradiation defects produced in the pre-transition oxide on the oxidation rate of zirconium alloys [20][21][22].…”

“…The experimental approach adopted during this study is similar to that used for the references [20,21] and is divided into many stages : preparation and pre-oxidation of the samples, SRIM calculations before irradiation, irradiation experiments with ARAMIS facilities, RAMAN spectroscopy characterization after irradiation, re-oxidation in light primary water or in 18 O enriched environment, oxidation kinetics followed by weight gains and 18 O diffusion profiles followed by Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry analyses.…”