Accident Tolerant Fuel with Chromium-Coated Fuel-Rod Cladding

The accident at the Fukushima NPP (Japan) showed the particular danger of a steam-zirconium reaction arising when the temperature of the fuel-rod cladding rises after loss of coolant. Work on the development of accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) has intensified in almost all countries with developed nuclear energy. When considering cladding options for such fuel, at first, for many manufacturers the application of a chromium-based protective coating to the surface of a fuel rod made of zirconium alloy appeared to be most promising. VNIINM has developed a technology for depositing a protective heat-resistant chromium-based coating on the cladding of fuel rods – fast, ion-plasma, magnetron sputtering. It has been shown experimentally that a single-layer chromium coating is optimal for making the zirconium cladding of fuel rods more heat-resistant.