Categorical Exclusion Determination
Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance
September 7, 2016
Estimated Read Time min
North Carolina State University proposes to characterize steam attack, hydrothermal corrosion, and radiation swelling of SiC/SiC composites-based accident tolerant fuel (ATF) using a combination of experiments, microstructure evaluation and phase-field simulations using MARMO – a MOOSE-based code. Components of this project include steam exposure and hydrothermal corrosion tests, ion irradiation experiments and electron microscopy examination, 3D mapping of the microstructure using non-destructive x-ray microscopy and mechanical tests, and microstructure evolution with chemical kinetics in MARMOT under normal/accident conditions and under different irradiated conditions followed by validation against experimental results.