• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.953-960
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• 2012

This paper reports the irradiation effect on the deformation behavior and tensile fracture properties of A533B RPV steel. An inverse identification technique using iterative finite element (FE) simulation was used to determine those properties from tensile data for the A533B RPV steel irradiated at 65 to $100^{\circ}C$ and deformed at room temperature. FE simulation revealed that the plastic instability at yield followed by softening for higher doses was related to the occurrence of localized necking immediately after yielding. The strain-hardening rate in the equivalent true stress-true strain relationship was still positive during the necking deformation. The tensile fracture stress was less dependent on the irradiation dose, whereas the tensile fracture strain and fracture energy decreased with increasing dose level up to 0.1 dpa and then became saturated. However, the tensile fracture strain and fracture energy still remained high after high-dose irradiation, which is associated with a large amount of ductility during the necking deformation for irradiated A533B RPV steel.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.1109-1112
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• 2017

The precise prediction of radiation embrittlement of aged reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) is a prerequisite for the long-term operation of nuclear power plants beyond their original design life. The expiration of the operation licenses for Korean reactors the RPVs of which are made from SA533B-1 plates and welds is imminent. Korean regulatory rules have adopted the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's transition temperature shift (TTS) models to the prediction of the embrittlement of Korean reactor pressure vessels. The applicability of the TTS model to predict the embrittlement of Korean RPVs made of SA533B-1 plates and welds was investigated in this study. It was concluded that the TTS model of 10 CFR 50.61a matched the trends of the radiation embrittlement in the SA533B-1 plates and welds better than did that of Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.99 Rev. 2. This is attributed to the fact that the prediction performance of 10 CFR 50.61a was enhanced by considering the difference in radiation embrittlement sensitivity among the different types of RPV materials.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.337-350
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• 1990

A post-irradiation annealing study was conducted with use of reactor pressure vessel(RPV) steel A533B Cl.1 base metal irradiated to a dose of 4.84$\times$10$^{18}$ n/$\textrm{cm}^2$ at about 38$0^{\circ}C$. Microhardness and positron annihilation (PA) methods were used to obtain better understanding of the recovery of radiation hardening. Isochronal anneal experiments indicated that two recovery processes occur during annealing of irradiated specimens. The first recovery process occurs in the temperature range of 280-3O5$^{\circ}C$, Michrohardness and positron annihilation (PA) methods were used to obtain better understanding of the recovery of radiation hardening. Isochronal anneal experiments indicated that two recovery processes occur during annealing of irradiated specimens. The first recovery process occurrs in the temperature range of 280-305$^{\circ}C$. The variations of Ip, Iw and R parameters indicated that the formation of vacancy clusters by vacancy agglomeration and the annihilation of monovacancies are the first recovery process. The second recovery process occurs in the range of 405-49$0^{\circ}C$ and positron annihilation parameters measured indicated that the dissolution of carbon atoms decorated around vacancy-type defects and possible precipitates, and the annihilation of monovacancies give rise to the second recovery process. It was further indicated that radiation anneal hardening (RAH) in the range of 305-405$^{\circ}C$ between the temperature ranges for the two processes occurs due to the formation of carbon-decorated vacancy clusters and precipitates. The activation energies, orders of reaction and other characteristics of recovery processes were determined by the Meechan-Brinkman method. The activation energy for the first recovery process was determined as 1.76 eV and that for the second recovery process as 2.00eV. These values are lower than those obtained by other workers. This difference may be attributed to the lower copper content of the RPV steel used in the present study. The order of reaction for the first recovery process was determined as 1.78, while that for the second recovery process as 1.67 Non-integer orders of reaction for recovery processes seem to be attributed to the fact that several mechanisms for the first order and the second order of reaction are compounded in one process. This result also supports for the above conclusions from measurements of PA parameters.