For the dry storage of Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) spent nuclear fuels, the integrity of Zircaloy-4 fuel cladding has to be verified. However, the formation of ~10 µm-thick oxide layers in typical CANDU reactor operating conditions takes several years, which makes sample preparation a slow process. To overcome such limitations, in this study, an accelerated formation of an oxide layer on Zircaloy-4 cladding tube was developed with a combination of high-temperature water corrosion (HT-WC) and air oxidation (AO). First, Zircaloy-4 tubes were corroded in oxygenated (2 ppm dissolved oxygen) high-temperature water (360 °C/19.5 MPa) for 500 h. Then, the tubes were air-oxidized at 500 °C for 30 h. Finally, the tubes were corroded again in HT-WC for 500 h to produce ~10 µm-thick oxide layers. The morphology and characteristics of the oxide layer in each step were analyzed using X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the oxide layer formed in the accelerated method was comparable to that formed in HT-WC in terms of morphology and oxide phases. Thus, the accelerated oxide formation method can be used to prepare an oxidized Zircaloy-4 cladding tube for CANDU fuel integrity analysis.
Keywords: Zircaloy-4; corrosion; oxidation; oxide layer; spent fuel cladding.