U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Revealing the chemical environment of Cr, Fe, and Ni in high temperature-ultrafine precipitate strengthened steel subjected to low fluence neutron irradiation
High-temperature ultrafine-precipitate-strengthened (HT-UPS) steel has potential applications in advanced nuclear reactors as a structural material. However, little is currently known about its response to neutron irradiation. This research provides insight into the neutron irradiation-induced physicochemical changes of the major constituents in HT-UPS steels, including Fe, Cr, and Ni, using synchrotron X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and diffraction. This study is the first known investigation using XANES to characterize HT-UPS steel to analyze the evolution of the atomic level chemistry. It was found that following irradiation, nucleation, ballistic dispersion, and/or coarsening of Cr23C6 precipitates occurred at very low neutron irradiation fluences, from 0.003 displacements per atom (dpa) up to 0.3 dpa, at ~600°C, which were at least an order of magnitude lower than previous studies. Calculations of the angular momentum projections, partial density of states, and the XANES spectra confirmed the experimental findings of the Cr23C6 precipitate evolution. In contrast, the local atomic structure around Fe and Ni atoms demonstrated irradiation resistance.
Nori, Sri Tapaswi, et al. "Revealing the chemical environment of Cr, Fe, and Ni in high temperature-ultrafine precipitate strengthened steel subjected to low fluence neutron irradiation." Journal of Nuclear Materials, vol. 554, May. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153056
Nori, Sri Tapaswi, Park, Gyuchul, Williams, Walter, Lee, Zhengrong, Warren, Mark, Terry, Jeff, Park, Jun-Sang, Kenesei, Peter, Almer, Jonathan, & Okuniewski, Maria A. (2021). Revealing the chemical environment of Cr, Fe, and Ni in high temperature-ultrafine precipitate strengthened steel subjected to low fluence neutron irradiation. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153056
Nori, Sri Tapaswi, Park, Gyuchul, Williams, Walter, et al., "Revealing the chemical environment of Cr, Fe, and Ni in high temperature-ultrafine precipitate strengthened steel subjected to low fluence neutron irradiation," Journal of Nuclear Materials 554 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153056
@article{osti_1837087,
author = {Nori, Sri Tapaswi and Park, Gyuchul and Williams, Walter and Lee, Zhengrong and Warren, Mark and Terry, Jeff and Park, Jun-Sang and Kenesei, Peter and Almer, Jonathan and Okuniewski, Maria A.},
title = {Revealing the chemical environment of Cr, Fe, and Ni in high temperature-ultrafine precipitate strengthened steel subjected to low fluence neutron irradiation},
annote = {High-temperature ultrafine-precipitate-strengthened (HT-UPS) steel has potential applications in advanced nuclear reactors as a structural material. However, little is currently known about its response to neutron irradiation. This research provides insight into the neutron irradiation-induced physicochemical changes of the major constituents in HT-UPS steels, including Fe, Cr, and Ni, using synchrotron X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and diffraction. This study is the first known investigation using XANES to characterize HT-UPS steel to analyze the evolution of the atomic level chemistry. It was found that following irradiation, nucleation, ballistic dispersion, and/or coarsening of Cr23C6 precipitates occurred at very low neutron irradiation fluences, from 0.003 displacements per atom (dpa) up to 0.3 dpa, at ~600°C, which were at least an order of magnitude lower than previous studies. Calculations of the angular momentum projections, partial density of states, and the XANES spectra confirmed the experimental findings of the Cr23C6 precipitate evolution. In contrast, the local atomic structure around Fe and Ni atoms demonstrated irradiation resistance.},
doi = {10.1016/j.jnucmat.2021.153056},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1837087},
journal = {Journal of Nuclear Materials},
issn = {ISSN 0022-3115},
volume = {554},
place = {United States},
publisher = {Elsevier},
year = {2021},
month = {05}}