Irradiated Silicon Carbide Corrosion in High Temperature Impure Helium

Abstract

Ceramic material silicon carbide (SiC) has a potential use in advanced reactors as a structural material because of its high mechanical strength, resistance to irradiation, and chemical stability. However, the corrosion behavior of SiC under high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) operation conditions, a key factor that determines fuel and material performance, is not well understood. This paper reports the corrosion behavior of gamma-irradiated SiC in impurity added helium atmosphere at temperatures 760 and 800 °C. The results showed that SiC corrosion depends on test temperature and irradiation dose. The corrosion rate of SiC can be well presented by empirical corrosion models. Overall, SiC is resistant to the corrosion in high temperature impure helium and could potentially be used as a structural material of HTGRs.