Impact of the use of the ferritic/martensitic ODS steels cladding on the fuel reprocessing PUREX process

Abstract Some ferritic/martensitic oxide dispersed strengthened (F/M ODS) steels are presently developed at CEA for the fuel cladding of the next generation of sodium fast nuclear reactors. The objective of this work is to study if this change of cladding could have any consequences on the spent fuel reprocessing PUREX process. During the fuel dissolution stage the cladding can actually be corroded by nitric acid. But some process specifications impose not to exceed a limit concentration of the corrosion products such as iron and chromium in the dissolution medium. For that purpose the corrosion behavior of these F/M ODS steels is studied in hot and concentrated nitric acid. The influence of some metallurgical parameters such as the chromium content, the elaboration process and the presence of the yttrium oxides is first discussed. The influence of environmental parameters such as the nitric acid concentration, the temperature and the presence of oxidizing species coming from the fuel is then analyzed. The corrosion rate is characterized by mass loss measurements and electrochemical tests. Analyses of the corroded surface are carried out by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.