Radiation embrittlement test reactor irradiation

Abstract This chapter discusses the role of simulation irradiation techniques in studies of radiation embrittlement mechanisms. The chapter first reviews characteristics and examples of test reactor irradiation, ion irradiation and electron irradiation. The chapter then discusses advantages and limitations of these techniques from the viewpoint of damage rate, sample volume and damage characteristics. 

It is widely known that radiation embrittlement behaviour of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels depends on various parameters such as material composition, neutron flux and irradiation temperature. Sound understanding and modelling of embrittlement mechanisms require systematic knowledge of effects of individual parameters and their synthesis on microstructural development and then mechanical properties. Most such knowledge has been obtained from single-parameter experiments using test reactor irradiation. This is because test reactor irradiation allows researchers to obtain mechanical property data together with microstructural data on materials with well-controlled chemical compositions under well-controlled irradiation conditions such as flux and temperature. Surveillance data in commercial power reactors are non-systematic in this context and relevant microstructural data are very scarce. 

Test reactor irradiation has been widely used for studies of radiation embrittlement in RPV steels and huge amounts of data and reports are... 

The latest version, PR-EDB Version 3, contains test results of 104 HAZ materials, 115 weld materials and 141 base materials, including 103 plates, 35 forgings and three correlation monitor materials that were irradiated in 321 capsules from 106 commercial power reactors. It was a Windows PC-based program (Windows 98 through XP only) using data files in MS Access format. It is being replaced by the Radiation Embrittlement Archive Project (REAP) (Klasky et al., 2013). 

J.C. Van Dnysen, J. Bonrgoin, P. Moser and C. Janot, Study of the neutron damage in a PWR pressure vessel steel after long-term irradiations in the Chooz A Reactor Surveillance Programme , Radiation Embrittlement of Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels An international review (4th Volume), ASTM STP1170, L.E. Steele, ed., American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, PA, 1993,132-138. 

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