Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

EnCore, ADOPT and Optimized ZIRLO are trademarks or registered trademarks of

Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, its affiliates and/or its subsidiaries in the
United States of America and may be registered in other countries throughout the
world. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Other names may
be trademarks of their respective owners

The following material is based upon work supported by the United Stated Department of Energy
under Award Number NE0008222 and DE-NE0008824
This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States
Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their
employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for
the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed,
or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific
commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not
necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States
Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not
necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Westinghouse EnCore® Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF)

Coated Cladding Development
Jorie Walters
Westinghouse Electric Company

CSAT 2019
Worcester, MA
June 25, 2019

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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Outline
• Background and Motivation
• Westinghouse ATF Program
• Lead Test Rod (LTR) Program
– Scale-up
– Surface Finishing
– Qualification Testing
• Summary

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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Background
• UO2 pellets are contained within a Zr alloy cladding tube
• Cladding tubes are arranged in various grid designs
• Each PWR reactor core contains ~180 fuel assemblies

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S. Marschman, “Used Nuclear Fuel Storage and Transportation Overview,”
Idaho National Laboratory, NEET ASI Review Meeting, September 17, 2014.
Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Motivation
• Highly exothermic reaction of Zr in steam:
𝑍𝑟(𝑠) + 2𝐻2 𝑂(𝑔) →𝑍𝑟𝑂2 (𝑠) + 2𝐻2 (𝑔)
• Following the event at Fukushima Daiichi
in 2011, U.S. DOE launched a program for
accident tolerant fuel (ATF)
– Fuels that can tolerate loss of cooling in
the reactor core for considerably longer
time periods compared to standard Zr-UO2
2012-2016 2017-2021 2022
Feasibility and Development and
Commercialization
Down Selection Qualification

Report to Congress, U.S. Department of Energy, “Development of Light

Water Reactor Fuels with Enhanced Accident Tolerance,” April 2015.
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 Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Westinghouse ATF Program

Chromium Coated Silicon Carbide (SiC)
• Advanced Cladding Cladding Composite Cladding

• Chromium coated zirconium – increases

maximum temperature and wear
resistance
• SiC – significantly increases maximum
temperature and does not balloon or
burst
Product Evolution
• Advanced Fuel ADOPT™ Fuel Pellets Uranium Silicide
(U3Si2) Pellets
• ADOPT™ fuel pellets – increases
density and reduces pellet-cladding
interactions
• U3Si2 fuel pellet - increases thermal
conductivity and improves fuel cycle Photo courtesy of Idaho National Laboratory

economics
Development on track for LTR programs and
future region implementation
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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Coating Development

• Optimization of cold spray process to produce a dense and

adherent Cr coating
• Coatings evaluated for:
• Coating build up
• Density, inclusions, inter-particle and interfacial bonding
• Interfacial roughness

Cr

Zr

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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Lead Test Rod (LTR) Program

Scale-up
Surface Finishing
Qualification
Delivery

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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Cold Spray Process Scale-up

• Design and fabrication of scale-up equipment
– Cladding tubes move relative to static cold spray nozzle
• Cold spraying of full length fuel cladding (~4m long)
– Scale-up partner VRC Metal Systems
– Qualification and certification complete

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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Chromium-coated Cladding – Scale-up Results

Cold Spray of Full Length Tube Coated Tubes Before and After Polishing

Lot of Coated Tubes

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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Chromium-coated Cladding – Surface Finishing

• Same surface finish as standard

cladding
• Industrial polishing equipment
– EH&S considerations
– Control of surface finish and
dimensions
• Optimization of variables
– Grit of polishing belts and
sequence
– Process speed and pressure
– Number of polishing passes
• Final coating thickness nominal
25 µm

Qualification of polishing process complete

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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Qualification Testing
• Coated cladding specification consistent with current Zr-
cladding specification
– Meets all requirements
– Cr comparable to Zr with more margin in some areas

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 Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

LTR Program
• Two 17x17 ATF Fuel Assemblies (FAs)
– Insertion in Exelon Byron PWR plant March 2019

FA1 (cladding, pellet) FA2 (cladding, pellet)

4: Segmented, U3Si2 4: Coated Cladding, ADOPT™ Fuel Pellets

4: Coated Cladding, UO2 8: Coated Cladding, UO2
Balance: Zr-alloy, UO2 Balance: Zr-alloy, UO2

Westinghouse successfully delivered LTRs for

insertion in a commercial reactor

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 Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

LTR Program
• Two 17x17 ATF Fuel Assemblies (FAs)
– Shipped to Exelon Byron plant March 2019

FA1 (cladding, pellet) FA2 (cladding, pellet)

4: Segmented, U3Si2 4: Coated Cladding, ADOPT™ Fuel Pellets

4: Coated Cladding, UO2 8: Coated Cladding, UO2
Balance: Zr-alloy, UO2 Balance: Zr-alloy, UO2

Westinghouse successfully delivered LTAs for

insertion in a commercial reactor

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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Ongoing Work
• Out-of-pile testing and irradiation programs ongoing
• Licensing
• Optimization of processes and equipment for additional
LTR opportunities and to support scale-up to mass
production of cold sprayed parts

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 Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2019 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Summary

• Successful development of
processes to support LTR insertion
in a commercial reactor:
– Cold spray process
– Design of scale-up equipment
– Polishing process
• Qualification and certification
complete
• Two fuel assemblies containing
ATF rods delivered to customer
• Further testing and optimization
underway to support future
demonstration and deployment

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