What is it about?
We simulated the radiation damage of TiN thin films using ion implantation and showed that severe damage is produced under moderate damage levels, questioning the use of these film to protect zircaloy from oxidation by steam, the major cause for the accident at Fukushima/Daichii.
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Why is it important?
The use of nuclear energy is unavoidable, options for nuclear fusion are still in development and will take a lot of time to achieve commercial viability, this means we still have to rely on fission energy. Nuclear accidents, however, are severe and need to be avoided. This can be done by the development of the so called accident tolerant fuels (ATF). TiN films were suggested to produce this kind of ATFs, but the present results show that radiation damage is severe in the film, and so TiN is not a viable alternative for this objective.
Perspectives
This work resulted from the collaboration of Matheus Tunes, who worked in his M.Sc. thesis at USP under my supervision and Felipe Carneiro dos Santos, who is currently finishing his PhD under my supervision, so this is a collaboration of two students, which makes me very happy.
Professor Claudio Geraldo Schön
Universidade de Sao Paulo Campus da Capital
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Energetic particle irradiation study of TiN coatings: are these films appropriate for accident tolerant fuels?, Journal of Nuclear Materials, December 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.10.013.
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