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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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The Nuclear Company forms partnership with University of South Carolina
The Nuclear Company, which in April opened its primary engineering and construction office in Columbia, S.C., announced a partnership with the University of South Carolina’s Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing, whereby the company will invest up to $5 million in the college over five years. USC is to match the private investment with funds from federal grants, industry partners, and other donors.
Pratik Joshi, Micah Tillman, Nilesh Kumar, Korukonda Murty, Nedim Cinbiz
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 5 | May 2020 | Pages 706-716
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1674581
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Zirconium-niobium (Zr-Nb) alloys are used as cladding materials to encapsulate radioactive fuel in nuclear reactors. They possess excellent corrosion resistance at high temperatures making it possible to achieve high fuel burnup, directly increasing the thermal efficiency of the reactor. While they are commonly used in recrystallized (Rx) form in boiling water reactors, there is a need to understand the effect of cold work and stress relief (CWSR) on the biaxial creep characteristics of these materials due to their use in pressurized water reactors. In this study, the biaxial creep behaviors of as-received Zr-Nb alloys, HANA and Zirlo®, have been investigated at 500°C and 400°C, respectively, using internally pressurized tubing superimposed with axial load under varied hoop σθ to axial σz stress ratios of 0 to 2 while monitoring both the axial and hoop strains using a linear variable displacement transformer and a laser telemetric extensometer, respectively. The crystallographic textures and creep loci of these as-received Zr-Nb alloys have been evaluated to correlate with the previous studies on recrystallized HANA4 and CWSR Zircaloy-4. The creep locus of HANA4 was found to be unaffected by initial state (CWSR or Rx) and showed close correspondence to planar isotropy while the creep locus of CWSR Zirlo exhibited more resistance to axial deformation than diametrical as per CWSR Zircaloy-4 reported earlier. These differences are shown to arise from grain-shape anisotropy of the CWSR Zirlo and Zircaloy-4. The simulated creep loci using crystallite-orientation distribution functions in conjunction with prism slip models showed excellent agreement with experimental results.