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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Researchers use one-of-a-kind expertise and capabilities to test fuels of tomorrow
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
W. D. Fletcher, D. D. Malinowski
Nuclear Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | March 1976 | Pages 356-373
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT76-A31518
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Service exposure has been accrued in 66 steam generators tubed with Inconel-600. Localized corrosion coincident with sludge deposition in low flow-velocity zones has been observed. Inter granular cracking has been attributed to stress-assisted caustic corrosion resulting from hydrolysis of condenser inleakage contaminants or sodium phosphate reactions with feedwater corrosion products. Wall thinning or wastage is attributed to the formation of high-concentration sodium phosphate solutions under the sludge blanket. The resistance of Inconel-600 to these corrosion mechanisms is comparable or superior to that of other candidate tube materials. The experience gathered points strongly to environmental and thermal/hydraulic factors rather than materials considerations as the predominant influence on the occurrence of localized corrosion. Mechanical modifications designed to reduce the number of tubes in zones of low flow-velocity are being installed into operating units; current production units have incorporated design features including a flow distribution baffle to improve the thermal/ hydraulic conditions over prior models. Rigorous control of feedwater impurities is being applied to reduce the probability of creating a corrosive environment in the steam generators.