JP Nuclear Materials

SP3: Development of Ceramic Materialsfor Next Generation Nuclear Reactors

Françoise MadayENEA, Italy

SP3 Coordinatorfrancoise.maday@enea.it

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Materials challenges for GFR & LFR

LFR assets: Inherent high safety features

LFR materials issuesCorrosion/erosion of materials in lead implying strict control of temperature,

dissolved oxygen & speed.

Material innovation is required for pump impeller

Very emerging materials with promising capabilities are MAX phases (ternary carbides, e.g. Ti3SiC2 )

GFR assets: Energy efficiency,Generation of process heat

SiCf/SiC is the only material that fulfills most requirements

GFR clad requirements for safetyNo melting

Leak tightness Structural integrity

Heat transfer

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State-of-the-art SiC-based technologies for GFR fuel cladding

Nuclear-grade

SiCf/SiC composite

Candidate material also for Fusion, long studied Stability demonstrated up to 72dpa

GFR fuel cladding

SiCf/SiC sandwich clad technology is a breakthrough from a French national programs lead by CEA

It guarantees leak-tightness for increased safety

Fabricability of a SiC/SiC clad prototype fully

demonstrated!

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Research in SP3:SiCf/SiC for GFR fuel cladding

2011-2014: Coordination and support action; FP7/MATTER (0.2 PY/Y from EC / 50%) Identification of breakthroughs on SiCf/SiC technologies from independent European R&D

programs Identification of targets and available experimental tools/facilities Definition of priorities Integration into common collaborative framework

2014-2017: FP7/MatISSE IRP (2 PY/Y from EC / 50% + 3 PY/Y in-kind)

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Research in SP3:MAX phases for LFR pump impeller

GOAL: To demonstrate the potential of MAX monoliths /cermets as materials for MYRRHA pump impeller, based on key criteria.

Go/no-go task about MAX phase technologies for LFR pump impeller

Go/no-go task about MAX phase potentiality for other LFR components to increase safety

If MAX phase potential demonstrated (TLR ~ 2) funding required to go beyond

2014-2017: FP7-Euratom MatISSE IRP; 1 PY/Y fully national

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Ongoing work and next steps

Development of joining technology for SiCf/SiC clad hermetic sealing (in-kind PP)

Scale-up SiCf/SiC sections to the specified length

Standardization of new characterization tests on non-standard sample shapes…

MAtISSE (~2 PY/Y / 50% + 3 PY/Y national)

2014 20252017

Conditions for further progress: availability of the necessary resources: Infrastructures for integrated experiments (especially those involving irradiation) Funding support for very expensive experimental campaigns

Multiple effects/multiple interaction integrated experiments

Investigating lower cost manufacture methods than reference CVI

Issue of nuclear-grade fibre production (exclusively developed in Japan): opportunity to promoting a European industrial chain?

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SiCf/SiC potential fields of application

Most immediate perspectives for synergies (nuclear) Advanced high T applications

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Thank you for your attentionAny question?