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Three‐dimensional atom probe study of irradiated, annealed and re‐irradiated VVER 440 weld metals
Author(s) -
Pareige P.,
Radiguet B.,
Suvorov A.,
Kozodaev M.,
Krasikov E.,
Zabusov O.,
Massoud J. P.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
surface and interface analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1096-9918
pISSN - 0142-2421
DOI - 10.1002/sia.1705
Subject(s) - embrittlement , irradiation , atom probe , materials science , vver , microstructure , annealing (glass) , welding , reactor pressure vessel , metallurgy , radiation damage , radiochemistry , nuclear engineering , nuclear physics , chemistry , physics , engineering
The radiation embrittlement of the welds of old VVER 440 reactor pressure vessels promoted research on technical ways to ensure their safe operation during design service life. One of those is the recovery annealing of the reactor pressure vessel. Today, very few data are available concerning re‐irradiated materials. These data are essential in order to understand the mechanism of re‐embrittlement and to be able to predict the evolution of the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the steel during in‐service re‐irradiation. For that purpose a research programme was launched to carry out atom probe studies of the microstructure of weld metals in irradiated, irradiated–annealed and re‐irradiated conditions. This work demonstrates that neutron irradiation promotes the formation of ultra‐fine copper‐enriched clusters and solute segregation to crystal defects in these Cr–Mo–V steels. The study of the annealed materials allows us to explain how the mechanical properties of the irradiated materials can be recovered. Also, study of the re‐irradiated material points out the non‐detection of copper‐enriched clusters and the phosphorus behaviour during re‐irradiation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.