Moessbauer study of Zircaloy after neutron irradiation at power reactor temperatures
- AECL Research, Chalk River, Ontario (Canada). Chalk River Labs.
{sup 57}Fe-Moessbauer spectroscopy was used to examine a specimen of Zircaloy-4 from a pressure tube extracted from a high-flux fuel channel of a CANDU reactor. During 25 years of service the alloy was exposed to a fast-neutron fluence of 5.6 {times} 10{sup 21}n/cm{sup 2}. The obtained spectra of unirradiated and neutron-irradiated specimens differ considerably. This is attributed to the radiation-induced dissolution and crystalline-to-amorphous transformation of Zr(Cr,Fe){sub 2} precipitates, accompanied by reprecipitation and partial recrystallization of metastable Zr{sub 2}Fe particles in the zirconium matrix. The correspondence between Moessbauer and electron microscopy observations, as well as the similarity between neutron-irradiated and ion-implanted specimens, is discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 99440
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-941144--; ISBN 1-55899-275-8
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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