Fission Product Pd-SiC Interaction in Irradiated Coated-Particle Fuels

Corrosion and fission product release from silicon carbide (SiC)-coated high-temperature gas-cooled reactor fuel particles represent a serious problem. The SiC corrosion by fission product palladium has been observed. The current results show that temperature is the major factor affecting the corrosion rate of SiC by palladium. All other factors—such as kernel composition, palladium concentration, other fission products, and SiC properties-are secondary.