Progress in Light Water Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels

Grain Boundary Segregation in Commercial Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels

Grain boundary (GB) segregation of impurity/solute atoms in surveillance test specimens of a commercial western-type pressurized water reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel has been observed by using state-of-the-art 3D atom probe (3DAP) field ion microscope (laser-assisted local electrode-type atom probe: laser-LEAP). The GB segregation is considered to be an origin of the embrittlement of the R...

Positron Annihilation Measurements on Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels

Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy is a valuable microscopic method to study radiation damage in nuclear reactor pressure vessel steels. At SCKoCEN, a new positron lifetime setup, suited to measure positron lifetimes in irradiated steel, is being constructed. The particularity of this setup is that the prompt count rate originating from the induced 60Co-activity in the steel is highly reduced. ...

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...

Reactor Pressure Vessel Embrittlement—i

Understanding Pressure Vessel Steels: An Atom Probe Perspective

Published Elsevier Science Inc. 1044-5803/00/$–see front matter 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 PII S1044-5803(99)00056-X 235 Understanding Pressure Vessel Steels: An Atom Probe Perspective M. K. Miller,* P. Pareige,*† and M. G. Burke‡ *Microscopy and Microanalytical Sciences Group, Metals and Ceramics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6376; †Groupe de ...