Nuclear Materials Under Irradiation

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-78945-148-1
Verlag: Wiley

Buch, Englisch, 320 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 612 g

At every stage of the fuel cycle, the materials used are at the heart of nuclear energy safety issues. These materials, which range from steel to polymers, including ceramics, glass, concrete and graphite, are submitted to extreme stresses combining mechanical, thermal and irradiation constraints.

The objective of this book is to provide a basis for the research of nuclear materials subjected to irradiation, with the desire to contextualize them in the industrial environment. Therefore, most of the chapters are co-authored and contain a mix of basic and applied research. The reader will find chapters on nuclear reactor materials (structural materials, neutron absorbers, moderators and nuclear fuel) and on materials in waste management (glass, concrete and organic materials). These material chapters are complemented by more general information on defects and their creation, radiolysis and irradiation and characterization tools.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bouffard, Serge

Moncoffre, Nathalie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface xi
Serge Bouffard and Nathalie Moncoffre

Chapter 1 Irradiation Defects 1
Serge Bouffard and David Siméone

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Some basic data 2

1.2.1 Radiative environments and nuclear materials 2

1.2.2 Some notions about the transport of particles in matter 5

1.2.3 The zoology of irradiation defects 9

1.3 Defect creation mechanisms 11

1.3.1 Creation of defects by elastic collisions 13

1.3.2 Amorphization 16

1.3.3 Creation of defects by electronic excitation 18

1.3.4 Synergy between elastic collisions and electronic excitations 26

1.4 Kinetics of defect evolution 28

1.4.1 Mean field approach: reaction rate theory 29

1.4.2 Evolution of extended defects: kinetics of clusters in the mean field 33

1.4.3 Kinetic Monte Carlo approach 34

1.4.4 Phase field approach 36

1.5 Open-ended problems 38

1.6 Acknowledgements 40

1.7 References 40

Chapter 2 Metal Alloys 47
Philippe Pareige and Christophe Domain

2.1 Introduction 47

2.2 Fuel cladding 52

2.2.1 Growth and creep under irradiation 54

2.2.2 Stress corrosion cracking 56

2.2.3 The mechanisms of the evolution of the properties under irradiation 57

2.2.4 Simulations of growth and creep under irradiation 58

2.3 Internal structures in austenitic steel 59

2.3.1 An effect of irradiation: intergranular segregation 61

2.3.2 Evolution of mechanical properties under irradiation 64

2.3.3 Creep under irradiation 65

2.3.4 Swelling 66

2.3.5 Irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking 67

2.4 The vessel 69

2.4.1 Changes in tenacity and resilience 70

2.4.2 Cluster dynamics 72

2.5 Perspectives 77

2.6 References 80

Chapter 3 Ceramics within PWRs 87
Christine Delafoy, Frederico Garrido and Yves Pipon

3.1 Introduction 87

3.2 Development and typica

Über Autor(innen)

Serge Bouffard is a retired Research Director for the CEA and has devoted his career to the study of the interaction of particles with materials and the mechanisms of defect creation. He is the man behind EMIR: the French national network of accelerators for the study of materials under irradiation.

Nathalie Moncoffre is a Research Director at the CNRS, specializing in the aging of nuclear materials. In particular, she has studied the behavior of fuel, metallic alloys, absorbers and graphite under irradiation. She is the manager at the EMIR&A: the French national network of accelerators for irradiation and analysis of molecules and materials.