Radiation damage concerns for extended light water reactor service

Abstract

How would you……describe the overall signifi cance of this paper? To meet growing energy needs along with reduced CO 2 emissions, the long-term safe and economical operation of current nuclear power plants will be required. Radiation damage is a unique aspect of nuclear reactor service and must be carefully examined for different materials and components under extended operation scenarios.…describe this work to a materials science and engineering professional with no experience in your technical specialty? Radiation damage is a unique aspect of nuclear reactor service and can lead to signifi cant changes in materials properties and performance. Extending the operating lifetime of a nuclear reactor will allow for greater energy production, but will also increase neutron exposure. An examination of possible radiation damage effects for extended service is provided in this paper.…describe this work to a layperson? Radiation exposure to nuclear reactor components can lead to changes in materials properties and performance during operation. Understanding and predicting these changes is important in the safe and effi cient operation of nuclear power plants. This paper describes some of the forms of radiation-induced degradation that might occur during the extended operation of a nuclear power plant.

Modeling investigation of the stability and irradiation-induced evolution of nanoscale precipitates in advanced structural materials

“…Precipitation often occurs in materials that contain one or more solute elements, and is of particular significance in the field of nuclear structural materials. Due to the creation and accumulation of defects (e.g., vacancies, interstitials and their clusters) under irradiation, structural materials in nuclear reactors are subject to a host of irradiation effects, such as irradiation hardening, irradiation embrittlement and irradiation creep, which can severely deteriorate the designed properties of these materials [1][2][3][4]. One strategy developed in the past decades to mitigate the detrimental irradiation effects is to introduce a high number density of fine nanoscale particles through thermal precipitation prior to the deployment of the materials in nuclear reactors [5].…”

Radiation-induced degradation of stainless steel light water reactor internals

“…4 are fluences at which some of the relevant component failures were observed in both reactor types, as well as for some of the radiation-induced changes in microstructure and mechanical properties [10]. Irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking has been recognized as an important failure mechanism in LWR environments [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and will be discussed later in this review.…”

“…As higher irradiation doses were reached, it was founds that IASCC was of concern in both BWRs and PWRs and a variety of lower stress components and various austenitic alloys. A number of extensive reviews of IASCC have been published and contain a wealth of detailed information [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]84,95]. Cracks nucleate on the water side of the irradiated material and propagate intergranularly into the material.…”

“…As a nuclear reactor is a complex system with a multitude of different components, materials, environments and reliability concerns, a comprehensive discussion of these issues would require a much more encyclopedic treatment [7]. Structural materials for nuclear reactors and some of the associated critical materials problems have been reviewed recently [8,9]. Fig.…”

“…Similar concerns will apply for other austenitic materials, such as related nickel-based alloys and superalloys. Several forms of radiationinduced degradation have been identified as being of concern for extended operation of LWRs [9]. These include radiation-induced segregation and precipitation, radiation hardening and embrittlement and dimensional stability, which include creep and swelling.…”