Component reliability exposed to thermal neutron environment

This paper deals with the evaluation of the reliability of a component exposed to nuclear radiation stress consisting of incident particles, possessing either a unique energy value or following an energy distribution. These incident particles transfer energy to the targets when they impinge on them. A general expression has been obtained for the 'effective nuclear radiation stress' which determines an interaction of the incident particles with the target nuclei. It has been assumed that the activated nuclei produced in the (n, γ) radiative capture process, are transformed into impurity atoms in the component material through β--decay. These impurity atoms are responsible for the unwanted behaviour of the component. In this part, survival probability of a component has been evaluated when it is exposed to thermal neutron flux for two cases, viz, for a time less than the exposure time and also for the time more than the exposure time. The model has also been illustrated numerically and graphically. (author)