Abstract
Neutron irradiation in mixed spectrum reactors is an effective approach to investigate the synergistic effects of solid transmutations and atomic displacement damage in tungsten. In this article the findings and interpretations from a large-scale tungsten irradiation campaign conducted using the High Flux Isotope Reactor of Oak Ridge National Laboratory are summarized. The response of originally-unalloyed tungsten to mixed spectrum neutron irradiation is characterized by enormous hardening, degradation of modulus of toughness eventually leading to embrittlement, and decreased thermal conductivity. These property changes may be attributed primarily to production, segregation, and precipitation of rhenium and osmium and assisted by displacement damage. The stages describing the evolution of the microstructural development and property changes with the neutron dose and the accompanying accumulation of transmutation products are proposed. This manuscript has been co-authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy 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).
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 193-207 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
Volume | 520 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2019 |
Funding
The work was supported by the US DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 and US-Japan PHENIX Collaboration Project for Technological Assessment of Plasma Facing Components for DEMO Reactors under contract NFE-13-04416 with UT-Battelle, LLC. A portion of this research used resources at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.