Low-Temperature Irradiation and Annealing Experiments in Graphite

Technical Report · Tue Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 1958

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4334289· OSTI ID:4334289

Austerman, S. B. ^[1]

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1. North American Aviation, Inc., Canoga Park, CA (United States). Atomics International Div.

Recent measurements of physical property changes in graphite exposed to nuclear radiation at temperatures near that of liquid nitrogen, and during subsequent thermal annealing, showed considerably more damage occurred and remained at this low temperature than during room-temperature irradiation. To provide more information for formulating and testing radiation damage and annealing models, further experiments were performed. The experiments included: electron irradiation of graphite near 4 °K, followed by measurement of the electrical resistivity changes due to annealing at temperatures up to room temperature; neutron irradiation at temperatures below 125 °K, followed by measurement of the annealing-out of radiation-induced crystallographic c-axis expansion at temperatures up to room temperature. In addition calculations based on previous stored-energy release experiments have been applied to a proposed model of interior-to-boundary diffusion of lattice defects to test plausibility of the model. The results of these experiments and calculations are discussed in relation to a recently proposed model for explaining radiation damage and thermal annealing.

• Research Organization: North American Aviation, Inc., Canoga Park, CA (United States). Atomics International Div.
• Sponsoring Organization: US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
• DOE Contract Number: AT(11-1)-GEN-8
• NSA Number: NSA-12-013012
• OSTI ID: 4334289
• Report Number(s): NAA-SR--2457
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ALL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
ANNEALING
CRYSTALS
DEFECTS
DIFFUSION
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
ENERGY
EXPANSION
GRAIN BOUNDARIES
GRAPHITE
HEAT TREATMENTS
IRRADIATION
LATTICES
LIQUIDS
LOW TEMPERATURE
MATERIALS TESTING
MATHEMATICS
MEASURED VALUES
NEUTRON BEAMS
NEUTRONS
NITROGEN
RADIATION EFFECTS
TEMPERATURE
TESTING