SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1979
STP36686S

A Stress Corrosion Cracking Model for Pellet-Cladding Interaction Failures in Light-Water Reactor Fuel Rods

Source

A model for pellet-cladding interaction (PCI) fracture of light-water reactor (LWR) fuel rods is presented, the basis of which is that Zircaloy cladding fails by iodine stress corrosion cracking (SCC). Laboratory data on iodine SCC of irradiated Zircaloy provide the primary input to the model, but unirradiated Zircaloy SCC data and theoretical analyses are utilized to broaden the regime of validity to encompass the various power reactor observations.

The PCI model postulates a threshold stress below which cladding cracks are unable to form. The cladding hoop stress must exceed this threshold for a finite time at any particular fission product iodine availability for the crack(s) to form. Crack formation is the controlling event in cladding failure due to SCC, and therefore, “remedies” must address the situation at the cladding inner surface.

Author Information

Roberts, JTA
Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, Calif.
Jones, RL
Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, Calif.
Cubicciotti, D
Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, Calif.
Miller, AK
Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.
Wachob, HF
NASA/Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, Calif.
Smith, E
Failure Analysis Associates, Palo Alto, Calif.
Yaggee, FL
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill.
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Details
Developed by Committee: B10
Pages: 285–305
DOI: 10.1520/STP36686S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-4749-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-0601-7