IRRADIATION EMBRITTLEMENT MECHANISMS AND RELEVANT INFLUENCE FACTORS OF NUCLEAR REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL STEELS

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2014.00189

Acta Metall Sin

2014, Vol. 50

Issue (11): 1285-1293 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2014.00189

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IRRADIATION EMBRITTLEMENT MECHANISMS AND RELEVANT INFLUENCE FACTORS OF NUCLEAR REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL STEELS

LI Zhengcao(

), CHEN Liang

Advanced Materials Laboratory, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084

Cite this article:

LI Zhengcao, CHEN Liang. IRRADIATION EMBRITTLEMENT MECHANISMS AND RELEVANT INFLUENCE FACTORS OF NUCLEAR REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL STEELS. Acta Metall Sin, 2014, 50(11): 1285-1293.

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Abstract

Nuclear reactor pressure vessel is the irreplaceable component of the nuclear power plant and its integrity is one of the key issues of any nuclear power plant for long term operations. Various nanofeatures, including solute clusters, matrix damage and grain boundary segregation formed in reactor pressure vessel steels in the face of neutron irradiation. These ultrafine microstructural features lead to an increase in the ductile brittle transition temperature as is the measure used to describe the irradiation embrittlement. The balance of features depends on the composition of the reactor pressure vessel steels and the irradiation conditions. This paper reviews the current phenomenological knowledge and understanding of the basic mechanisms and relevant influence factors for irradiation embrittlement of nuclear reactor pressure vessel steels. To be specific, the formation and evolution processes of the embrittling features are presented. Also, the influences of material variables, such as copper, nickel and manganese contents on irradiation embrittlement and those of irradiation variables, such as neutron flux and post irradiation annealing are summarized. In addition, fundamental research issues that remain to be addressed are briefly pointed out.

Key words: reactor pressure vessel irradiation embrittlement solute precipitation matrix damage grain boundary segregation

Received: 26 June 2014

ZTFLH:

TL341

Fund: National Science and Technology Major Project (No.2011ZX06004-002)

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2014.00189 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2014/V50/I11/1285

Fig.1 Atom maps of the solute distributions in reactor pressure vessel (RPV) surveillance test specimens of Doel-1 of the dose 5.9×10¹⁹ n/cm² (a) and Doel-2 of the dose 5.1×10¹⁹ n/cm²(b)^[22]

Fig.2 APT reconstitution of a small volume of the Fe-1.1Mn-0.7Ni (atomic fraction, %) alloy after neutron irradiation up to 0.2 dpa(Iron atoms are not represented for clarity of the image) (a), and enlargement of manganese (b) and nickel (c) enriched clusters^[54]

Fig.3 Composition of the clusters formed in the simulation after 0.024 dpa in the Fe-1.2Mn-0.7Ni (atomic fraction, %) alloy, according to the simulation of neutron irradiation at 300 ℃^[52]

Fig.4 TEM image of a neutron irradiation-induced microstructure in pure Fe at 0.2 dpa^[54]

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