High-Entropy alloys for ATF cladding: Beyond the CoCrFeMnNi Cantor alloy toward manufacturable and oxidation-resistant nuclear materials

초록

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) provide a versatile platform for nuclear structural materials, but their suitability for accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding remains uncertain. Practical deployment requires irradiation tolerance, accident-relevant oxidation resistance, neutronic and activation compatibility, fuel-cladding chemical compatibility, mechanical integrity, and thin-wall tube manufacturability. This review reassesses HEA/CCA systems beyond the CoCrFeMnNi Cantor benchmark using an evidence-based, deployment-oriented framework. Co-free Fe-Cr-Mn-Ni FCC alloys, Al-bearing HEAs/CCAs, refractory HEAs, and FeCrAl-adjacent systems are evaluated according to the directness and maturity of irradiation, oxidation, corrosion, and processing evidence. Rather than ranking alloy families, the review distinguishes experimentally demonstrated behavior from analogous or inferential evidence and identifies the gaps that currently preclude cladding qualification. The resulting evidence map clarifies promising design directions while emphasizing the need for composition-specific irradiation, LOCArelevant oxidation, FCCI, neutronic, and tube-scale fabrication assessments.

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