Abstract
Radiation induced segregation and precipitation phenomena in an in-service boiling water reactor 304 stainless steel component were investigated using directly correlated 3D-atom probe tomography and scanning transmission electron microscopy. Significant quantitative differences in measured segregation at grain boundaries were found between the atom probe and energy dispersive spectroscopy measurements of the exact same locations. In particular, a much stronger Si segregation (~10 atomic% via atom probe versus ~4 atomic% via electron microscopy) and different Cr profile shapes were detected that are critical to models of radiation induced segregation and stress corrosion cracking behavior. These quantitative differences highlight the need for comparative microscopy and critical evaluation of limitations in each analytical method. Elemental segregation to dislocations and conjoined-clusters were also highlighted by atom probe; confirming and expanding upon what has been observed in test reactor neutron and accelerator-based ion irradiations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 152894 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 549 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2021 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank EPRI for financial support of the initial material characterization. We would also like to thank Alan Schemer-Kohrn (PNNL) for helping with handling and sample preparation of the radioactive samples. Further characterization and manuscript writing were supported by the Fundamental Understanding of Transport Under Reactor Extremes (FUTURE), a US Department of Energy Office of Science Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC). The characterization was performed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DEAC05–76RL01830. APT was performed at PNNL's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy - Office of Biological & Environmental Research national scientific user facility. FIB/SEM and STEM were performed using tools within PNNL's Institutional Microscopy program. This research was also partly sponsored by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U. S. Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC05–00OR22725. The authors would like to thank EPRI for financial support of the initial material characterization. We would also like to thank Alan Schemer-Kohrn (PNNL) for helping with handling and sample preparation of the radioactive samples. Further characterization and manuscript writing were supported by the Fundamental Understanding of Transport Under Reactor Extremes (FUTURE), a US Department of Energy Office of Science Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC). The characterization was performed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DEAC05–76RL01830. APT was performed at PNNL's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy - Office of Biological & Environmental Research national scientific user facility. FIB/SEM and STEM were performed using tools within PNNL's Institutional Microscopy program. This research was also partly sponsored by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U. S. Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC05–00OR22725. This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05\05500OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Alan Schemer-Kohrn | |
| EFRC | |
| Fundamental Understanding of Transport Under Reactor Extremes | |
| US Department of Energy Office of Science Energy Frontier Research Center | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | DEAC05–76RL01830, DE-AC05–00OR22725 |
| Battelle | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Electric Power Research Institute | |
| Pacific Northwest National Laboratory |
Keywords
- Atom probe tomography (APT)
- Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)
- Radiation-induced segregation (RIS)
- Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)
- Stainless steel