Influence of Rf plasma carbonitriding on AISI304L, SSMn6Ni and SSMn10Ni for nuclear applications

The present study aims to examine the effect of rf plasma surface carbonitriding on austenite stainless steel AISI304L, SSMn6Ni and SSMn10Ni for pressurized water reactors application. All samples were fabricated at Central Metallurgical Research and Devolopment Institute (CMRDI), Egypt. They were also carbonitrided by rf plasma in a mixture of nitrogen and acetylene gases (85% N₂ + 15% C₂H₂) at 500 W plasma power and 7.5 × 10⁻² mbar total gas pressure. In addition, the mechanical, tribological and corrosion resistance of the treated steels revealed strenghthening in the surface properties compared with that of the untreated samples. Furthermore, nuclear properties were investigated using different radioactive sources of neutron and gamma rays at different energies. Gamma ray measurements compared between the experimental and theoretical (μ and σ) shielding parameters of all carbonitrided steel samples at various energies ranging between 300.63 and 2614.51 keV. Moreover, a slight increase occurred in the macroscopic cross section of the total slow neutrons of all carbonitrided samples. (paper)