Embrittlement of Reactor Structural Steels by Neutron Irradiation

Origin of Embrittlement of Commercial Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels: Cu-rich Precipitates and Defects

The irradiation-induced embrittlement of the nuclear reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels is currently a vital issue for ensuring safe operation of nuclear power plants in the world since the reactors of the first generation are going to exceed their initially designed operation lifetimes. Thus, it is of great importance to reveal the nanostructural change, attributed to the origins of the embr...

Prevention of Hydrogen Embrittlement in Steels

The essential facts about the nature of the hydrogen embrittlement of steels have now been known for 140 years. It is diffusible hydrogen that is harmful to the toughness of iron. It follows, therefore, that the harmful influence of diffusible hydrogen can be mitigated by preventing its entry into steel or by rendering it immobile once it penetrates the material. This review deals with the meth...

Reactor Pressure Vessel Embrittlement—i

Study on Temper Embrittlement and Hydrogen Embrittlement of a Hydrogenation Reactor by Small Punch Test

The study on temper embrittlement and hydrogen embrittlement of a test block from a 3Cr1Mo1/4V hydrogenation reactor after ten years of service was carried out by small punch test (SPT) at different temperatures. The SPT fracture energy Esp (derived from integrating the load-displacement curve) divided by the maximum load (Fm) of SPT was used to fit the Esp/Fm versus-temperature curve to determ...

Determination of neutron temperature in irradiation channels of reactor

The neutron temperature is a characteristic parameter in irradiation channels of reactor. For nuclides which have resonances in the thermal neutron energy range, their Westcott g-factors are different from unity. The values of g-factors and cross-sections of (n, γ) reaction of these nuclides are temperature dependence. The standard energy for tabulation of thermal neutron cross-section (σ0) is ...