Materials Science Forum Vol. 1024

Abstract: The well-known and often acceptable radiation tolerance of ferritic/martensitic (f/m) steels can be severely diminished when neutron irradiation is accompanied by the production of helium. The presence of helium in the irradiated materials changes the kinetics of the nucleation, recombination, and clustering of the radiation-induced defects. High production rates of helium may lead to a non-negligible volumetric bubble swelling at relatively low temperatures. Extrapolation of the knowledge gained from neutron irradiation experiments to fusion or spallation environments is additionally complicated due to the unknown and comprehensive effects of dpa rate, temperature, the presence of sinks in the crystal lattice and others. To improve the understanding of the microstructure and irradiation parameters effects, close attention must be paid to the early stages of the radiation damage. It is expected that the pre-existing vacancy-type defects, attributed to lattice distortion at the grain/subgrain boundaries and oxide-matrix interfaces, are effective sinks for primary defects and helium, i.e. they control the formation and growth of helium-vacancy agglomerations. This early-stage radiation damage, however, cannot be captured by conventional transmission electron microscopy, and thus other experimental techniques are called for. One of the most perspective experimental approaches to investigate small vacancy-type defects, with a high sensitivity to confined helium, is to utilize positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS). In particular, two spectroscopy techniques, positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) and Doppler broadening spectroscopy (DBS) of the annihilation line, can be beneficially used for the characterization of helium-vacancy clusters. This paper reviews the recent positron annihilation spectroscopy characterization of various irradiation experiments involving helium. Mainly two types of irradiation experiments are addressed, helium implantation and spallation neutron source irradiation experiments. Discussion is aimed at the potential of PAS in the early-stage formation of helium bubbles and the investigation of the effects of irradiation parameters in defect production and accumulation.

Abstract: KENS-II is the second generation of the spallation neutron source at KEK which was operated from December 1, 2000 to March 22, 2006 supplying neutron beam to the neutron spectrometers of material science. The present paper reviews history of the KENS-II from its design to removal together with its performance for the neutron scattering experiments.

Abstract: Material choices for liquid lead bismuth spallation target are some of austenitic stainless steel, ferrite martensitic steel and cold-worked austenitic stainless steel. In order to ensure materials resistance to irradiation and corrosion as well as compatibility with lead bismuth, it is appropriate to lower the incident proton current density and the process temperature, in which temperature range engineering design can control to work, especially in ADS (Accelerator-Driven nuclear transmutation System) concept. The lower limit temperature is determined from the physical melting temperature and the engineering efficiency of the steam generator involved in process control. The material related issues for liquid lead bismuth are mass loss by impinging secondary flow, wettability at the device interface for ultrasonic waves application, detachable control of the slag in the flowing system, stabilized electrical resistance between the material and the liquid lead bismuth interface. Electromagnetic fluid analyses show how flow rate relates electrical resistivity of flow channel material.

Abstract: SINQ Target-11 was in operation in 2015 and 2016. It was shut down due to an incident in June 2016, during which the pressure drop in the cooling water loop increased significantly, and meanwhile, the activity of the cooling water also increased tremendously. The evidence indicated a serious failure of the target. As this is the first severe failure since SINQ came into operation in 1997, some post-irradiation examinations (PIE) were performed to analyze the failure mechanisms.

Abstract: The effects of helium concentration and displacement damage on microstructural evolution at low dpa and low helium concentration were mainly investigated in specimens of austenitic stainless steel 316FR or SUS304 and a high chromium martensitic steel (HCM12A). The 316FR and HCM12A specimens were implanted uniformly with helium at 823 K up to 30 appm-He or 50 appm-He by 50 MeV cyclotron accelerator using energy degraders. After the helium implantation, the microstructures were examined by a transmission electron microscopy and positron annihilation lifetime measurements. Irradiation hardening behaviors were analyzed using SUS304 and HCM12A steels at 823 K implanted with He ion up to 100 appm with different He/dpa ratios in the HIT ion irradiation experiments and the hardening behaviors were examined by nano indentation method. In the irradiation and annealing specimens, these mechanical properties and microstructures were examined to understand the effects of helium production, displacement damage and annealing on microstructural development, and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulations were also performed to understand the microstructural development, and the results were compared with the results of TEM observation and positron annihilation lifetime measurements. Important some differences in the microstructural developments such as cavity formation and growth between austenitic stainless steel and martensitic steel were observed in low dpa and low helium concentration conditions.

Abstract: The change in the positron annihilation lifetime (PAL) of vacancy clusters before and after electrolysis hydrogen charging was determined using PAL measurements in electron-irradiated F82H. The experimental change indicated 8 hydrogen atoms were trapped in vacancy clusters; whereas the theoretical calculation resulted in approximately 14 atoms. As the samples were left at room temperature for 5 min until the start of the PAL measurements, the de-trapping effect of hydrogen atoms was also considered; approximately 13 hydrogen atoms were captured at each vacancy cluster. The PAL decreased after annealing at 148 K, which could not be explained theoretically. Therefore, further experiments and discussions are needed to obtain a precise change in the PAL of vacancy clusters containing hydrogen atoms in F82H.

Abstract: Corrosion behavior of Fe-18Ni-12Cr-2.30Al and Fe-18Ni-12Cr-2.90Al-Nb-C austenitic steels was investigated in static Pb-Bi eutectic at 550 °C for 1000 h depending on the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the liquid metal. In the concentration range from 10¹² to 10⁸ mass % O, both steels underwent corrosion via dissolution resulted in the formation of spongy ferrite layer depleted in Ni and Cr and penetrated by Pb and Bi. In Pb-Bi with 10⁶ mass % O, Fe-18Ni-12Cr-2.90Al-Nb-C steel oxidizes with formation of very thin (≤ 1 μm) Cr/Al oxide film while Fe-18Ni-12Cr-2.30Al steel shows mixed corrosion behavior represented by more intensive oxidation and dissolution. The features of corrosion response are discussed depending on the composition of steels and concentration of dissolved oxygen in the Pb-Bi eutectic.

Abstract: Tungsten (W) is suitable for solid targets of spallation neutron source due to its high neutron yield. The prediction of radiation effects of W is, therefore, of importance; especially, the influence of solute elements are complex and are not clearly known to date. We discuss here the solute effects using the first principles and kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) calculations and show that Re and Os, which are nuclear transmutation products of W, can largely change the stability and mobility of radiation defects. Such influences of the solute elements seem to explain the unsolved mechanism of the microstructural evolution of W-based materials under irradiation.

Abstract: For validating the number of displacements per atom (dpa) for tungsten under high-energy proton irradiation, we measured displacement cross sections related to defect-induced electrical resistivity changes in a tungsten wire sample under irradiation with 389-MeV protons under 10 K. The Gifford–McMahon cryocooler was used to cool the sample using a conductive coolant via thermal conduction plates of oxygen-free high-conductivity copper and electrical insulation sheets of aluminum nitride ceramic. In this experiment, the displacement cross section was 1612 ± 371 b for tungsten at 389 MeV. A comparison of the experimental displacement cross sections of tungsten with the calculated results obtained using Norgett–Robinson–Torrens (NRT) dpa and athermal recombination-corrected (arc) dpa cross sections indicates that arc-dpa was in better agreement with the experimental data than NRT-dpa; this is similar to the displacement cross sections of copper. From the measurements of damage recovery of the accumulated defects in tungsten through isochronal annealing, which is related to the defect concentration of the sample, approximately 20% of the damage was recovered at 60 K. This trend was similar to those observed in other experimental results for reactor neutrons.