Abstract: Some high temperature advanced nuclear reactor systems will use highly corrosive coolants such as molten salts, molten lead, and lead-bismuth eutectic mixtures. The existing Class A metallic materials qualified in the ASME Section III, Division 5 rules for high temperature nuclear reactors are not ideal for resisting corrosion when exposed to these coolants. A solution to this limitation is the use of cladded components — overlay the Class A material with a thin layer of some non-qualified corrosion resistant material. However, this necessitates the development of a design method for cladded components without requiring long-term testing of clad materials in order to support the near-term deployment of the advanced reactor systems.

Here I discuss the development of such design method along with a complete set of design rules, criteria for selecting clad materials that satisfy the requirements set by the underlying approach of the developed design method, and a general acceptance test for checking the mechanical integrity of the clad/base metal interface.