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The reactor vessel of the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten has been fabricated from Al 5154-O alloy grade with a maximum Mg content of 3.5 wt. %. The vessel experiences large amount of neutron fluences (notably at hot spot), of the order of 1027 n/m2, during its operational life. Substantial damage to the material’s microstructure and mechanical properties can occur at these high fluence conditions. To this end, a dedicated surveillance program: SURP (SURveillance Program) is executed to understand, predict and measure the influence of neutron radiation damage on the mechanical properties of the vessel material. In the SURP program, test specimens fabricated from representative HFR vessel material are continuously irradiated in two specially designed experimental rigs. A number of surveillance specimens are periodically extracted and tested to evaluate the changes in fracture toughness properties of the vessel as function neutron fluence. The surveillance testing results of test campaigns performed until 2015 were published previously in [1, 2]. The current paper presents fracture toughness and SEM results from the recent surveillance campaign performed in 2017. The fracture toughness specimen tested in this campaign received a thermal neutron fluence of 13.56 x1026 n/m2, which is ∼8.9 × 1025 n/m2 more than the thermal fluence received by the specimen tested in SURP 2015 campaign. These results from this campaign have shown no change in the fracture toughness from the values measured in the previous SURP campaign. The SEM observations are performed to study the fracture surface, to measure (by WDS) the transmutation Si formed near crack tip and to investigate various inclusions in the microstructure. SEM fracture surface investigation revealed a tortuous (bumpy) fracture surface constituting micro-scale dimples over majority of the fracture area. Islands of cleavage facets and secondary cracks have been observed as well. EDS analysis of various inclusions in the microstructure revealed presence of Fe rich inclusions and Mg-Si rich precipitates. Additionally, inclusions rich in Al-Mg-Cr-Ti were identified. Finally, changes in mechanical properties of Al 5154-O alloy with an increase in neutron fluence (or transmutation Si) are discussed in correlation with SEM microstructure and fracture morphology observed in SEM. TEM investigation of precipitate microstructure is ongoing and those results will be published in future.

The reactor vessel of the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten has been fabricated from Al 5154 - O alloy grade with a maximum Mg content of 3.5 wt. %. The vessel experiences large amount of neutron fluences (notably at hot spot), of the order of 1027 n/m2, during its operational life. Substantial damage to the material’s microstructure and mechanical properties can occur at these high fluence conditions. To this end, a dedicated surveillance program: SURP (SURveillance Program) is executed to understand, predict and measure the influence of neutron radiation damage on the mechanical properties of the vessel material. In the SURP program, test specimens fabricated from representative HFR vessel material are continuously irradiated in two specially designed experimental rigs. A number of surveillance specimens are periodically extracted and tested to evaluate the changes in fracture toughness properties of the vessel as a function neutron fluence. The surveillance testing results of test campaigns performed until 2009 were already published by N. V. Luzginova et. al. [1]. The current paper presents results from the two recent surveillance campaigns performed in 2014 and 2015. The fracture toughness and tensile testing results are reported. Changes in mechanical properties of Al 5154-O alloy with an increase in neutron fluence are discussed in correlation with the irradiation damage microstructure observed in TEM and the fracture morphology observed in SEM. The HFR surveillance testing results are compared to the historically published results on irradiated aluminum alloys and conclusions about the evolution of embrittlement trends in relation with irradiation induced damage mechanisms in HFR vessel are drawn at the end.

The present paper demonstrates the overview of ten years NRG effort in investigating the Eurofer97 steel mechanical properties response after neutron irradiation in the High Flux Reactor in Petten, and highlights the main trends found during analyses of the extensive mechanical data sets.

This paper is an overview of the very first results obtained on pure tungsten (W) and oxide dispersed strengthened (ODS) W alloys produced by the Metal Injection Molding (MIM) technique for fusion applications. An extensive mechanical and physical characterization was performed, together with microstructural material investigation. The reported work was accomplished within the framework of the European Fusion Development Agreement work program. The main objective was to develop suitable tungsten grades for structural and armor divertor applications in the future DEMO fusion reactor.

Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) Eurofer97 steel (EU batch, 0.3 wt.% of Y2O3 particles), produced by mechanical alloying followed by hot rolling, is irradiated in the High Flux Reactor in Petten, The Netherlands at three different irradiation temperatures (300, 450 and 550 °C) up to nominal doses of 1 dpa and 3 dpa. The effect of neutron irradiation on the mechanical properties of ODS Eurofer97 material is investigated. It is shown that the irradiation hardening of ODS Eurofer97 steel occurs at 300 °C, whereas during irradiation at 450 and 550 °C no changes in mechanical properties are observed compared to the unirradiated material. This effect is possibly a result of the annealing of the irradiation damage at temperatures higher than 300 °C. The observed shifts in the Ductile to Brittle Transition Temperatures due to irradiation at different temperatures are discussed and compared with non-ODS Eurofer97 steel.

This article presents measurements to describe the constitutive behaviour of a semi-austenitic precipitation hardenable stainless steel called Sandvik Nanoflex™, during metal forming and hardening. The material is metastable, which causes strain-induced transformation during forming. Depending on the annealing conditions, the material can also transform isothermally as opposed to a-thermal martensite. This transformation can also take place immediately after plastic deformation, as a result of the residual stresses in the material. The martensite phase of this material shows a substantial ageing response (about 1000 N/mm2). In order to understand the behaviour of these transformations, an inductive measurement setup was developed to measure the transformation. This is a known technology, except that calibration of the sensor is complex because the sensor signal is determined by more parameters than only the martensite content. The results of the various measurements to characterize the steel Sandvik Nanoflex™ are discussed here.

Measurements of transformation behaviour are very important to get a good knowledge of the material behaviour of metastable stainless steels during metal forming processes. A convenient way of measuring this kind of transformations is inductive measurment. This article describes a possible solution for this kind of measurements, together with the developed sensors and electronics. The first part of the article focuses on the electronics, calibration and the development of the sensors. The equipment is also used for multi sensor measurements. The second part of the article shows results of measurements on the Sandvik maraging steel 1RK91. The results are shown for three examples: ○ strain induced transformation during tensile testing. ○ Stress assisted transformation. ○ Amount of strain induced transformations after cold rolling and the homogeneity of those transformations in relation with the coil length and width. A problem that occurs during inductive measurements is that more parameters than the martensite content have influence on the output of the signal. Elastic stresses, temperature and plastic deformation have also a big influence on the signal output. Some results of measurements are shown to demonstrate the influence together with a calibration method. The measuring device is fully automatic and connected to a computer to make sample logging possible during testing.