Neutron irradiation-enhanced grain growth in tungsten and tungsten alloys

Hanns Gietl; Takaaki Koyanagi; Xunxiang Hu; Makoto Fukuda; Akira Hasegawa; Yutai Katoh

doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.163419

Neutron irradiation-enhanced grain growth in tungsten and tungsten alloys

Hanns Gietl, Takaaki Koyanagi, Xunxiang Hu, Makoto Fukuda, Akira Hasegawa, Yutai Katoh

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

To understand the microstructural stability of candidate plasma-facing materials under fusion-relevant environments, neutron irradiation of W and W-3%Re alloys with and without K and La dopants was performed in the mixed-spectrum High Flux Isotope Reactor at nominal temperatures of ~850 °C and ~1100 °C to calculated doses between 0.42 and 0.47 dpa. To the best of our knowledge, this study presents the first experimental evidence of radiation-enhanced recrystallization in W and undoped W–Re alloys at ~850 °C, conditions where thermal annealing does not cause any grain growth in a similar timescale. Potassium- or lanthanum-doped tungsten alloys showed more resistance to radiation-enhanced grain growth. We explain the acceleration of grain growth by analyzing the self-diffusion constant under atomic displacement environments. The microstructural observations of the studied W variants suggest that La doping is more effective than K doping for mitigating recrystallization. This study also found that radiation-enhanced recrystallization is an important consideration when designing and applying W to plasma-facing components in future nuclear fusion reactors.

Original language	English
Article number	163419
Journal	Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Volume	901
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.163419
State	Published - Apr 25 2022

Funding

The authors thank the ORNL LAMDA technical team for assistance in property characterization and annealing. Additionally, the authors thank John Echols and Chad Perish for their technical review of the manuscript. This work was performed as part of the US-Japan PHENIX Cooperation Collaboration Project Technological Assessment of Plasma Facing Components for DEMO Reactors, supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. ORNL research was sponsored by the US Department of Energy, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, under contract DE-AC05–00OR22725 with UT-Battelle LLC. A portion of this research used resources at the HFIR, a US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated by ORNL. X. Hu's effort was partially supported by the Science Specialty Program of Sichuan University (Grant no. 2020SCUNL210). The authors thank the ORNL LAMDA technical team for assistance in property characterization and annealing. Additionally, the authors thank John Echols and Chad Perish for their technical review of the manuscript. This work was performed as part of the US-Japan PHENIX Cooperation Collaboration Project Technological Assessment of Plasma Facing Components for DEMO Reactors, supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. ORNL research was sponsored by the US Department of Energy, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences , under contract DE-AC05–00OR22725 with UT-Battelle LLC . A portion of this research used resources at the HFIR, a US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated by ORNL. X. Hu’s effort was partially supported by the Science Specialty Program of Sichuan University (Grant no. 2020SCUNL210 ). Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05–00OR22725 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
Science Specialty Program of Sichuan University	2020SCUNL210
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Fusion Energy Sciences	DE-AC05–00OR22725
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
UT-Battelle
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Keywords

Neutron irradiation
Recrystallization
Tungsten
Tungsten alloys

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.163419

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title = "Neutron irradiation-enhanced grain growth in tungsten and tungsten alloys",

abstract = "To understand the microstructural stability of candidate plasma-facing materials under fusion-relevant environments, neutron irradiation of W and W-3%Re alloys with and without K and La dopants was performed in the mixed-spectrum High Flux Isotope Reactor at nominal temperatures of ~850 °C and ~1100 °C to calculated doses between 0.42 and 0.47 dpa. To the best of our knowledge, this study presents the first experimental evidence of radiation-enhanced recrystallization in W and undoped W–Re alloys at ~850 °C, conditions where thermal annealing does not cause any grain growth in a similar timescale. Potassium- or lanthanum-doped tungsten alloys showed more resistance to radiation-enhanced grain growth. We explain the acceleration of grain growth by analyzing the self-diffusion constant under atomic displacement environments. The microstructural observations of the studied W variants suggest that La doping is more effective than K doping for mitigating recrystallization. This study also found that radiation-enhanced recrystallization is an important consideration when designing and applying W to plasma-facing components in future nuclear fusion reactors.",

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AU - Koyanagi, Takaaki

AU - Hu, Xunxiang

AU - Fukuda, Makoto

AU - Hasegawa, Akira

AU - Katoh, Yutai

PY - 2022/4/25

Y1 - 2022/4/25

N2 - To understand the microstructural stability of candidate plasma-facing materials under fusion-relevant environments, neutron irradiation of W and W-3%Re alloys with and without K and La dopants was performed in the mixed-spectrum High Flux Isotope Reactor at nominal temperatures of ~850 °C and ~1100 °C to calculated doses between 0.42 and 0.47 dpa. To the best of our knowledge, this study presents the first experimental evidence of radiation-enhanced recrystallization in W and undoped W–Re alloys at ~850 °C, conditions where thermal annealing does not cause any grain growth in a similar timescale. Potassium- or lanthanum-doped tungsten alloys showed more resistance to radiation-enhanced grain growth. We explain the acceleration of grain growth by analyzing the self-diffusion constant under atomic displacement environments. The microstructural observations of the studied W variants suggest that La doping is more effective than K doping for mitigating recrystallization. This study also found that radiation-enhanced recrystallization is an important consideration when designing and applying W to plasma-facing components in future nuclear fusion reactors.

AB - To understand the microstructural stability of candidate plasma-facing materials under fusion-relevant environments, neutron irradiation of W and W-3%Re alloys with and without K and La dopants was performed in the mixed-spectrum High Flux Isotope Reactor at nominal temperatures of ~850 °C and ~1100 °C to calculated doses between 0.42 and 0.47 dpa. To the best of our knowledge, this study presents the first experimental evidence of radiation-enhanced recrystallization in W and undoped W–Re alloys at ~850 °C, conditions where thermal annealing does not cause any grain growth in a similar timescale. Potassium- or lanthanum-doped tungsten alloys showed more resistance to radiation-enhanced grain growth. We explain the acceleration of grain growth by analyzing the self-diffusion constant under atomic displacement environments. The microstructural observations of the studied W variants suggest that La doping is more effective than K doping for mitigating recrystallization. This study also found that radiation-enhanced recrystallization is an important consideration when designing and applying W to plasma-facing components in future nuclear fusion reactors.

KW - Neutron irradiation

KW - Recrystallization

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Neutron irradiation-enhanced grain growth in tungsten and tungsten alloys

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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