Formation of Hydrides and Hydrogen Embrittlement
Also, 5–20% of hydrogen diffuses into the zirconium alloy cladding forming zirconium hydrides. The hydrogen production process also mechanically weakens the rods cladding because the hydrides have lower hardness, ductility and density than zirconium or its alloys, and thus blisters and cracks form upon hydrogen accumulation. This process is also known as hydrogen embrittlement.
In case of Loss-of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) in a damaged nuclear reactor, hydrogen embrittlement accelerates the degradation of the zirconium alloy cladding of the fuel rods exposed to high temperature steam.
Read more about this topic: Zirconium Alloy
Famous quotes containing the words formation of, formation and/or hydrogen:
“Out of my discomforts, which were small enough, grew one thing for which I have all my life been grateful—the formation of fixed habits of work.”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)
“The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“All you of Earth are idiots!... First was your firecracker, a harmless explosive. Then your hand grenade. They begin to kill your own people a few at a time. Then the bomb. Then a larger bomb, many people are killed at one time. Then your scientists stumbled upon the atom bomb—split the atom. Then the hydrogen bomb, where you actually explode the air itself.”
—Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1922–1978)