



In certain hypothetical accident situations in pressurized-water nuclear reactors (PWRs), the zirconium alloy cladding of fuel pallets, which constitutes the first barrier for the containment of radioactive products, can be exposed for a few minutes to water vapor. at high temperature (up to 1200 ° C), before being cooled and then quenched with water. The cladding material then undergoes numerous structural and metallurgical evolutions. In order to study these structural evolutions in a precise way, a first experiment campaign was carried out on the BM02 line of the ESRF on a prototype furnace allowing to perfectly control the atmosphere and the temperature. Two tasks will be entrusted to the candidate: continue and finish the analysis of the first experiment(phase fraction determination, residual constraints ...) and prepare a new complementary experimental proposal by mid 2020.

