Westinghouse is developing cold sprayed chromium(Cr)-coated zirconium (Zr) alloy cladding for commercialuse through its EnCore® accident tolerant fuel (ATF)program. Dense and adherent coatings have been appliedsuccessfully to full-length tubes, being finished withprecision polishing. As part of this comprehensivedevelopment program, a significant amount of testing hasbeen done to characterize the performance of thecladding both in-pile and without the effects of radiation.Both fueled and unfueled coated cladding testing has beencompleted and is currently underway. Cr-coated Zr alloycladding has been shown to have uniform and negligiblecorrosion in simulated pressurized water reactor (PWR)chemistry and provide excellent high temperaturecorrosion resistance while maintaining the bulkmechanical properties of the Zr cladding. This has beendemonstrated via burst, creep and tensile testing. Inaddition to the testing campaign, a concerted effort hasbeen placed on the manufacturability and scale up of thecold spray application process. This paper will highlightthe current state of testing and development.
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