Prototypical experiments relating to air oxidation of Zircaloy-4 at high temperatures

The mechanism of the reaction between Zircaloy-4 and air at temperatures from 800 to 1500 °C was studied. Air attack under prototypical conditions with air ingress during a hypothetic severe nuclear reactor accident was investigated. Oxidation in air and in air and nitrogen-containing atmospheres leads to a major degradation of the cladding material. The main mechanism is the formation of zirconium nitride and its re-oxidation. Pre-oxidation in steam prevents air attack as long as the oxide scale is intact. Under steam/oxygen starvation conditions, the oxide scale is reduced and significant external nitride formation takes place. When modeling air ingress in severe accident computer codes, parabolic correlations for oxidation in air may be applied only for high temperatures (>1400 °C) and for pre-oxidized cladding (⩾1100 °C). Under all other conditions, faster, rather linear reaction kinetics should be applied.