Steels in interaction with liquid metals: a review

Liquid metals are envisaged for various nuclear applications ranging from spallation neutron sources to future fission and fusion reactors. A fair amount of current research is dedicated to the investigation of the interaction of steels, the only structural materials compatible at long term with liquid metals such as the eutectic lead-bismuth or sodium. The aging problems for these materials are corrosion, wettability and liquid metal induced embrittlement. This review recalls some of the key factors in the understanding of these problems. (authors)