Nondestructive SANS Study of Reactor Pressure Vessel Steel after Irradiation

Abstract

The irradiation induced defects of irradiated reactor pressure vessel(RPV) steel were investigated by a small angle neutron scattering. The degradation of the mechanical properties of RPV steels during an irradiation in a nuclear power plant is closely related to the irradiation induced defects. The size of these defects is known to be a few nanometers, and the small angle neutron scattering technique is regarded as the best non destructive technique to characterize the nano sized inhomogeneities in bulk samples. The RPV steel was irradiated in the HANARO reactor in KAERI. The small angle neutron scattering experiments were performed at SANS instrument in the HANARO reactor. Both unirradiated and irradiated RPV steels were measured and the SANS data of both steels were compared. The nano sized irradiation induced defects were quantitatively analyzed by SANS. The type of defects was also analyzed based on the SANS results, and the effect of the chemical composition of the RPV steel on the irradiation induced defects was discussed.