Radiation-induced segregation, hardening, and IASCC

Intergranular cracking has been discovered after extended radiation exposure in several boiling water reactor (BWR) internal components made of austenitic stainless steel and nickel-based alloys. There are fewer field observations of intergranular cracking in pressurized water reactors (PWR), but failures have occurred in bolts, springs, and fuel cladding. There is concern for other PWR components, some of which will receive greater radiation doses than BWR components during the plant lifetime. This paper presents the results of an investigation on the connection between radiation induced segregation, hardening and irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC). A data base was developed containing the available data on austenitic stainless steel where the grain boundary composition was measured by Field Emission Gun-Scanning Transmission Election Microscopy (FEG-STEM), the stress corrosion susceptibility was measured by constant extension rate tests (CERT) in light water reactor environments, some estimate of irradiated strength was available and the irradiation was conducted in a power reactor. The data base was analyzed using advanced data analysis techniques, including tree-structured pattern recognition and transformation analysis codes. The most sensitive variables and optimal modeling forms were identified using these techniques, then preliminary models were calibrated using nonlinear least squares. The results suggest that more than one mechanism causes IASCC