Current understanding of the effects of enviromental and irradiation variables on RPV embrittlement

Conference · Sat Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:467935

Odette, G R; Lucas, G E; Wirth, B; Liu, C L ^[1]

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1. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

Radiation enhanced diffusion at RPV operating temperatures around 290{degrees}C leads to the formation of various ultrafine scale hardening phases, including copper-rich and copper-catalyzed manganese-nickel rich precipitates. In addition, defect cluster or cluster-solute complexes, manifesting a range of thermal stability, develop under irradiation. These features contribute directly to hardening which in turn is related to embrittlement, manifested as shifts in Charpy V-notch transition temperature. Models based on the thermodynamics, kinetics and micromechanics of the embrittlement processes have been developed; these are broadly consistent with experiment and rationalize the highly synergistic effects of most important irradiation (temperature, flux, fluence) and metallurgical (copper, nickel, manganese, phosphorous and heat treatment) variables on both irradiation hardening and recovery during post-irradiation annealing. A number of open questions remain which can be addressed with a hierarchy of new theoretical and experimental tools.

• Research Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research; Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
• OSTI ID: 467935
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CP--0157-VOL.2; CONF-9610202--Vol.2; ON: TI97004274; CNN: Contract NRC-04-94-049
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
COPPER ADDITIONS
EMBRITTLEMENT
HEAT TREATMENTS
MANGANESE ADDITIONS
NEUTRON FLUENCE
NEUTRON FLUX
NICKEL ADDITIONS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PHOSPHORUS ADDITIONS
PRESSURE VESSELS
RADIATION HARDENING
STEELS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0400-1000 K
WATER MODERATED REACTORS