SCORPION (SiC Composite Claddings: LWR Performance Optimisation for Nominal and Accidental Conditions)

2011年发生的福岛第一核电站事故表明，需要加强核能安全，这成为过去十年全球对耐事故燃料投资的主要驱动力。正在开发的替代轻水反应堆（LWR）中使用的标准锆基合金（锆基合金）燃料包壳材料的候选ATF包壳材料概念必须在标称运行、高温瞬态（<1200°C）和事故（>1200°C）条件下优于商业锆基合金。SiC/SiC复合材料是一种相当革命性的ATF包覆材料概念，表现出固有的耐火性、假塑性和在冷却剂损失情况下缺乏加速氧化。由于其在满足ATF覆层应用的严格性能要求方面的独特潜力，SiC/SiC复合材料已经在全球范围内获得了大量投资。尽管有这些投资，SiC/SiC复合包层材料概念的所有最先进变体在其未来部署之前仍然必须克服固有的缺点。两个重要的弱点是它们与冷却剂（水和蒸汽）的相容性不足，以及在标称操作期间辐射诱导膨胀的早期（<2 dpa）饱和。SCORPION致力于通过高度创新的纳米级材料定制来彻底改善SiC/SiC复合燃料包壳的性能，以限制水热腐蚀和辐射膨胀，同时还修改纤维/基质界面，以提高辐射和高温氧化环境下的稳定性。SCORPION是欧洲、美国和日本之间的ATF应用驱动型国际合作项目，该项目结合了多学科的科学卓越性、利益相关者的专业知识和尖端的制造方法，生产出概念验证型SiC/SiC复合材料覆层材料，并为第二代/第三代轻水堆服务环境提供了彻底优化的性能。

The Fukushima Daiichi event in 2011 demonstrated the need for enhanced nuclear energy safety, becoming a major driving force for global investments in accident-tolerant fuels (ATFs) over the past decade. Candidate ATF cladding material concepts that are being developed in replacement of the standard zirconium-based alloy (zircaloy) fuel cladding materials used in light water reactors(LWRs) must outperform commercial zircaloys under nominal operation, high-temperature transient (<1200°C) and accident (>1200°C) conditions. SiC/SiC composites are a rather revolutionary ATF cladding material concept exhibiting inherent refractoriness, pseudoductility,and a lack of accelerated oxidation during a loss-of-coolant scenario. Due to their unique potential in meeting the stringent property requirements of the ATF cladding application, SiC/SiC composites have already claimed large global investments. Despite these investments, all state-of-the-art variants of the SiC/SiC composite cladding material concept must still overcome inherent shortcomings prior to their perspective deployment. Two important weaknesses are their inadequate compatibility with the coolant (water and steam) and the early (<2 dpa) saturation of radiation-induced swelling during nominal operation. SCORPION strives for a radical improvement in the performance of SiC/SiC composite fuel claddings by highly innovative material tailoring on the nanoscale, so as to limit hydrothermal corrosion and radiation swelling, while also modifying the fibre/matrix interface for better stability under irradiation and in hightemperature oxidizing environments. SCORPION is an ATF application-driven international collaboration between Europe, the USA and Japan, which combines multidisciplinary scientific excellence, stakeholder know-how, and cutting-edge manufacturing approaches to produce proof-of-concept SiC/SiC composite cladding materials with a radically optimized performance for Gen-II/III LWR serviceenvironments.