Radiation-Induced Degradation of Concrete in NPPs
- ORNL
Nuclear power plants life extensions to 60 and potentially 80 years of operation have renewed interest in long-term material degradation. One material being considered is concrete. Swelling of aggregates driven by radiation induced displacements of atoms is currently considered to be the most probable leading contributor to the radiation induced degradation of concrete mechanical properties. In the biological shields of nuclear plants atom displacements are dominated by neutron contributions while gamma-ray contributions are negligible. For a number of minerals, which are common constituents of aggregates, in concrete it was shown that ~95% of the dpa is generated by neutrons with energies above 0.1 MeV. Neutrons with energies above 1 MeV contribute only ~20 to 25% to the dpa. Therefore, if neutron fluence is used as correlation parameter for the concrete degradation, the neutron fluence energy cut-off of 0.1 MeV should be used. Based on the projected neutron fluence values (E > 0.1 MeV) in the concrete biological shields of the US pressurized water reactor fleet and the available data on radiation effects on concrete, some decrease in mechanical properties of concrete cannot be ruled out during extended operation beyond 60 years.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1486970
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ASTM 16th International Symposium on Reactor Dosimetry (ISRD-16) - Sante Fe, New Mexico, United States of America - 5/7/2017 8:00:00 AM-5/12/2017 8:00:00 AM
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Review of the Current State of Knowledge on the Effects of Radiation on Concrete
|
journal | January 2016 |
Characterization of Radiation Fields for Assessing Concrete Degradation in Biological Shields of NPPs
|
journal | January 2017 |
Meso-scale modeling of irradiated concrete in test reactor
|
journal | December 2015 |
Gamma displacement cross-sections in various materials
|
journal | December 2000 |
Radiation effects in concrete for nuclear power plants – Part I: Quantification of radiation exposure and radiation effects
|
journal | February 2015 |
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