Patent ID: 7400697

Claim:
A clad tube for nuclear fuel made by the process comprising steps: a. placing a graphite mandrel in an electro deposit chamber as the cathode material; b. placing rhenium stock in the electro deposit chamber as the anode material; c. filling the electro deposit chamber with chloride electrolyte; d. closing the electro deposit chamber; e. heating the electrolyte bath to a desired temperature; f. depositing rhenium on the mandrel to a desired thickness by applying current and voltage across the anode and cathode; g. machining the rhenium on the mandrel to a final desired close tolerance dimension; h. placing niobium alloy stock containing zirconium in the electro deposit chamber as the anode; i. heating the electrolyte bath to a desired temperature; j. depositing niobium alloy over the rhenium to a desired thickness by applying current and voltage across the anode and cathode while creating an atomic level bonded interface; k. removing the mandrel from the electro deposit chamber and grinding the formed clad tube for nuclear fuel to a desired outer diameter; and l. removing the formed tube from the mandrel.