ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2026
Nuclear Technology
June 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2026
Latest News
North American construction is back—smaller and faster—at OPG’s Darlington
“The nuclear renaissance is real here,” said Ontario Power Generation’s Subo Sinnathamby on May 8, one year to the day after OPG secured a final investment decision to build the first of four planned BWRX-300 reactors at its Darlington nuclear power plant, and shortly after the new reactor’s foundation was lifted into place. “We got our license to construct in April and our [final investment decision] in May, and we’ve been off to the races since.”
Suresh K. Yagnik, Duane P. Johnson, John A. Kervinen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 147 | Number 2 | August 2004 | Pages 291-300
Technical Paper | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3533
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The routine method of monitoring Zircaloy cladding corrosion in nuclear fuel pools is based on eddy current (EC) measurements at a single high frequency in the range of 1-3 MHz. At this frequency the rf wave does not penetrate through the cladding wall and, ideally, the EC response can be correlated to the thickness of the oxide layer that separates the sensor head from the metal substrate. In practice, however, the cladding corrosion is often overestimated by this method due to the primary circuit corrosion products (or crud) that are deposited on the fuel rod surface. In addition, the crud, which is primarily nickel ferrite oxides, may significantly interfere with the EC response due to its ferromagnetic nature. We describe a two-frequency method with four-dimensional vector analyses of the EC response to more precisely assess the cladding corrosion. Two independent approaches for measuring the corrosion damage are suggested in this study. First, the four-dimensional data treatment enables a direct measure of the oxide thickness, even in the presence of ferromagnetic crud. Second, it can also provide a direct measure of the substrate wall thickness, and hence the degree of corrosion, provided the original wall thickness is known. By comparison, the approaches to crud correction currently available prove inadequate, especially if both the thickness and permeability of the crud deposits vary over the fuel rod surface, as is generally the case. The new method has been applied to inactive samples with and without the ferromagnetic crud effect. In the reported laboratory simulations, the oxide thickness and wall thinning were measured independently to within ±4 m, irrespective of unknown crud thickness and permeability.