Thermal Conductivity

As noted in Chapter 1, thermal conductivity is a very important property of fuel cladding materials as it is needed to take the heat away from the fuel to the coolant. Theory indicates that one would expect a decrease in the thermal conductivity due to increased phonon scattering in the irradiated materials. However, in actual reactor operating conditions, the changes have been insignificant.

308 I 6 Radiation Effects on Materials

6.3.4