Observations on Damage Accumulation during Iodine-Induced Stress Corrosion Cracking of Zircaloy Cladding

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Abstract
A predictive model has recently been proposed for pellet-cladding interaction (PCI) failures of water reactor fuel rods.1–3 The model is based on the assumption that PCI failures are attributable to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of the Zircaloy cladding induced by fission product iodine. Because the kinetics of iodine-induced SCC of irradiated Zircaloys are not well-documented at present, the PCI model1–3 is based largely on failure-time data from constant stress tube pressurization experiments. The following procedure was used to apply these constant stress laboratory data to the variable-stress situation that exists during PCI failure. The computed hoop stress history of the cladding was divided into discrete time increments of length Δt.

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