The measurement of silver diffusivity in zirconium carbide to study the release behavior of 110mAg in the ZrC TRISO-coated nuclear fuel particle

To help elucidate the diffusive behavior of silver in the ZrC coating of the TRISO-coated particle, a new diffusion experimental technique, called the encapsulating source method, has been developed by constructing a constant source diffusion couple between ZrC and Ag gas originated from Zr-Ag solid solution. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and optical methods were used to analyze the diffusion couple annealed at 1500 °C. The resultant diffusion coefficient of Ag in single-crystalline ZrC0.84 at 1500 °C was experimentally determined to be about 2.8 (±1.2) × 10−17 m2/s.