Meso-Scale Magnetic Signatures for Nuclear Reactor Steel Irradiation Embrittlement Monitoring

Conference · Tue Mar 31 04:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4914765· OSTI ID:1194300

Suter, Jonathan D.; Ramuhalli, Pradeep; McCloy, John S.; Xu, Ke; Hu, Shenyang Y.; Li, Yulan; Jiang, Weilin; Edwards, Danny J.; Schemer-Kohrn, Alan L.; Johnson, Bradley R.

Verifying the structural integrity of passive components in light-water and advanced reactors will be necessary to ensure safe, long-term operations of the existing U.S. nuclear fleet. This objective can be achieved through nondestructive condition monitoring techniques, which can be integrated with plant operations to quantify the ‘state of health’ of structural materials in real-time. While nondestructive methods for monitoring many classes of degradation (such as fatigue or stress corrosion cracking) are relatively advanced, this is not the case for degradation caused by irradiation. The development of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technologies for these types of degradation will require advanced materials characterization techniques and tools that enable comprehensive understanding of nuclear reactor material microstructural and behavioral changes under extreme operating environments. Irradiation-induced degradation of reactor steels causes changes in their microstructure that impacts their micro-magnetic properties. In this paper, we describe preliminary results to integrate advanced material characterization techniques with meso-scale computational models to provide an interpretive understanding of the state of degradation in a material. Microstructural data are presented from monocrystalline Fe and are correlated with variable-field magnetic force microscopy and micro-magnetic measurements. In future efforts, microstructural measurements and meso-scale magnetic measurements on thin films will be used to gain insights into the structural state of these materials to study the impact of irradiation on magnetic properties. Preliminary conclusions from these correlations are presented, and next steps described.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1194300
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-105084; NT0104000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
42 ENGINEERING
magnetic force microscopy
nondestructive testing
reactor health monitoring