O. Zabusov

The Effect of Radiation-Induced Structural Changes under Accelerated Irradiation on the Behavior of Water-Cooled Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels

In this paper the influence of fast neutron flux on the structural features and properties of VVER-1000 reactor pressure vessel steels was studied. It is shown that for high Ni steels the flux effect is due to hardening and non-hardening mechanisms of radiation embrittlement.

Intergranular Embrittlement of Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels

Service life of VVER-type nuclear reactor is limited by decrease in brittle fracture resistance of reactor pressure vessel produced of low-alloy low-carbon steel under effect of irradiation and/or elevated temperatures. In this work fracture surfaces were studied by Auger-electron spectroscopy in order to estimate the contribution of intergranular embrittlement to the degradation of reactor pressure vessel steels under the influence of operating conditions. It was demonstrated that irradiation induced segregation leads to an increase of P content in grain boundaries that promotes intergranular brittle fracture on fracture surfaces. The similar effect but to a lesser degree was shown in the case of long-term temperature exposure. The grain boundary structure was examined and an effect of carbides located on the grain boundaries is supposed due to increased phosphorus segregation on carbide/matrix interface boundaries.

The Effect of Post-Irradiation Annealing on VVER-440 RPV Materials Mechanolocal Properties and Nano-Structure Under Re-Irradiation

The present work provides the analyses of embrittlement behavior and atom probe tomography study of nano-structure evolution of VVER-440 RPV materials under irradiation and re-irradiation. Specimens from VVER-440 weld with high level of cupper (0.16 wt.%) and phosphorus (0.027–0.038 wt.%) were irradiated in surveillance channels of Rovno Nuclear Power plant unit 1 (Ro-1). The embrittlement behavior has been assessed by transition temperature shift.Copyright