GEN IV WEBINAR – 8:30 am EDT

August 31, 2023

Steam (with increased temperature and pressure) is always the challenge of power technology for high-efficiency production of electricity. Supercritical water fossil fired plants have been the mainstream for over 5 decades. A supercritical water cooled nuclear reactor (SCWR) concept has been selected by the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), but scientists and designers are facing unprecedented difficulties in solving the problems in material, neutronics and thermo-hydraulics. The high temperature and pressure operation condition of a SCWR core is tough and challenging to the materials for the nuclear fuel cladding due to its thickness limitation, strict corrosion rate requirement and high reliability expectations. This webinar will present the state-of-art development of materials for SCWR fuel cladding, the mechanisms of general corrosion and stress corrosion cracking, the major factors affecting their corrosion and cracking performances, and the proposed testing procedures to obtain consistent and reproducible corrosion and cracking data under supercritical water conditions.