Conclusions
Radiation damage in structural materials for fast reactors is caused by the action of many different mechanisms, depending on the irradiation conditions, the composition and state of the material, and external factors. This damage affects considerably the physicomechanical and operating characteristics of the material and, thus, the economy of fast reactors. Experimental data and theoretical models of radiation damage make it possible to predict the basic factors which limit the efficiency of the structural material for high burnup values and also single out the basic problems in improving the core elements and materials. This applies in the first place to problems of accommodation of structural material swelling and problems of securing sufficiently high mechanical characteristics for large fluence values. Experimental data on swelling and long-term mechanical characteristics have a rather large scatter. It is necessary to understand the causes of this scatter in order to eliminate indeterminacies in design calculations and determine the conditions ensuring the greatest resistance of materials to radiation damage.
The lower values of swelling and plasticity loss encourage optimism and show the potentialities of the materials already in use. However, it must be considered that most reactor data pertain to doses of 50–70 d/α, while it is necessary to know the behavior of the material characteristics for doses of up to 100–120 d/α. Therefore, in substantiating the choice of materials for fuel-element jackets and assembly casings for projected high-power reactors, it is necessary to obtain the characteristics of materials with different compositions for such doses under conditions close to the actual operating conditions.
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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 20–27, July, 1977.
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Bykov, V.N., Konobeev, Y.V. Radiation damage in structural materials for fast reactors. At Energy 43, 618–624 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01118503
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01118503