Study on the corrosion behavior of austenitic stainless 15-15Ti for nuclear fuel cladding in lead-bismuth eutectic alloy with oxygen control

The austenitic stainless steel 15-15Ti is one of the main candidate materials for the fuel cladding of the Lead-cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) due to its outstanding irradiation resistance and mechanical properties at high temperatures. The study of the corrosion behavior of 15-15Ti in LBE can help further investigate the service performance in a reactor. In this study, the static LBE corrosion of 15−15Ti was carried out for 1000 h at the temperature of 550°C and the oxygen concentration of 5×10−7 wt%. The samples were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The results showed that 15-15Ti was oxidized and formed a duplex oxide film. The inner oxide film is continuous and the main component is FeCr2O4. The outer oxide film is composed of Fe3O4. The Fe3O4 oxides are loose and they could fall off from the surface.