Scale up of a DLI-MOCVD process for the internal treatment of a batch of 16 nuclear fuel cladding segments with a CrCx protective coating

International audienceDirect liquid injection – metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (DLI-MOCVD) is the most advanced process dedicated to the internal protection of nuclear fuel cladding in accident conditions such as loss of coolant. It allows the deposition of an amorphous, glassy-like chromium carbide CrCx coating which is resistant against high-temperature oxidation in air and steam. Since the above-mentioned material characterizations demonstrated that coatings possessed the appropriate protection properties, the DLI-MOCVD process was scaled-up. First, a joint development between experimental and numerical studies led to a deposition inside a 1 m long cladding segment with a coating of sufficiently large and uniform thickness. Optimized reactor parameters consist in a combination of low temperature (~600 K) and low pressure (~600 Pa) with a high vapor flow rate of reactive species in the reactor ensuring a short residence time. The second phase of the scale-up consisted in coating simultaneously three, then sixteen segments in a single run. 3D computational simulations of the deposition process assisted the development of specific flanges designed to distribute homogeneously the reactive vapor into the three or sixteen cladding tubes. Experimental conditions have been extrapolated from one to three and to sixteen cladding segments, resulting in the deposition of the CrCx coating inside all segments with a relatively uniform partition. Overall, this paper demonstrates the feasibility of the deposition of CrCx coating in a bundle of several, up to sixteen, nuclear fuel cladding segments of 1 m in length (ID 8 mm), in order to protect them during accident conditions. This “batch demonstration” is a first step in the course of DLI-MOCVD technological transfer. Next step will be the deposition in a full-length cladding tube (4 m) that is already supported by numerical predictions