Identification of chemical composition of CRUD depositing on fuel surface of a boiling water reactor (BWR-6) plant.

Abstract: The objectives of this paper aimed at the characterization of metallic composition and surface analysis on the cruds of fuel rods for unit-1 of boiling water reactor (BWR-6) at Kuosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Taiwan. The inductively coupled plasma- atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and gamma spectrometry were carried out to analyze the corrosion product distributions and determine the elemental compositions along the fuel rod under conditions of hydrogen water chemistry (HWC) switched from normal water chemistry (NWC) of plant site in this study. Most of the crud consisted of the flakes and irregular shapes via SEM morphology. The XRD results showed that the loosely adherent oxide layer was mostly composed of hematite (α-Fe2O3) with amorphous iron oxides. The parameters of reactor water chemistry and the available mathematical model for crud deposition were utilized to interpret the chemistry effects on such crud deposition behavior. The fuel surface of this plant appeared to be one with the lower crud deposition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]