Journal of Nuclear Science, Engineering and Technology (JONSAT)
In cooperation with the Iranian Nuclear Society

Radiation damage and yield strength calculations in the pressure vessel of WWER-1000 reactor and sensitivity analysis of neutron spectrum on the shield of vessel

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

E. Moslemi-Mehni 1
F. Khoshahval 2
R. Pour-Imani 1
M. A. Amirkhani-Dehkordi 2

1 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Arak University, 3848177584, Arak, Iran

2 Reactor and Nuclear Safety Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, AEOI, P.O.Box: 14155-1339, Tehran- Iran

https://doi.org/10.24200/nst.2021.1305
Abstract
Radiation damage calculation is very important for estimating the lifetime of nuclear power plant instruments. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the sensitivity of the damage values to the neutron group energy, where the neutron flux rate is maximum. In the present study, we propose three neutron group energy (WIMS, CINDER, and OPENMC) to evaluate the sensitivity of radiation damage calculations. The obtained result from SPECTER code shows that the differences between these results and the standard values (ASTM E-693) for three group energy WIMS, CINDER and OPENMC are respectively 0.25E-04, 0.75E-04, and 1.74E-04 in the ¼ diameter of reactor pressure vessel (RPV). Therefore, the WIMS energy group is the most accurate spectrum compared to other spectrums in this region. Also, these differences are respectively 0.43E-04, 0.52E-04, and 1.86E-04 in the ¾ diameter of RPV. Moreover, the WIMS group energy is the most accurate spectrum in this region. This result shows that increasing the number of neutron energy group cause to reduce the difference between calculation of damage and its standard values. According to the results of calculated damage that induced by WIMS group energy in ¼ diameter of RPV, the values of yield strength at 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years are calculated by SPECOMP and SPECTER codes.

Keywords

Radiation damage
SPECTER code
sensitivity analysis
Yield strength
Reactor pressure vessel
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14. L. R. Greenwood, SPECOMP calculations of radiation damage in compounds. Reactor Dosimetry: Methods, Applications, and Standardization. ASTM International, (1989).‏

 

15.  K. Cass, An Evaluation and Validation of the Computer Code SPECTER for Use in Nuclear Materials Science Research. Diss. Pennsylvania State University, (2015).‏

 

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1.  K. Dohi, et al. Effect of neutron flux on low temperature irradiation embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel steel, Journal of nuclear materials, 265, 78-90 (1999).‏
 
2.   B. Z. Margolin, and V. I. Kostylev. Radiation embrittlement modelling for reactor pressure vessel steels: II. Ductile fracture toughness prediction. International journal of pressure vessels and piping, 76.10, 731-740 (1999).‏
 
3.  S. Alhassan, Radiation Damage Assessment of Zircaloy and Stainless Steel Cladding materials based on Neutron Flux and Energy Deposition using both Computational Tools and Analytical Solution. Diss. University of Ghana, (2016).‏
 
 
4.    F. A. Garner, 4.02 Radiation damage in austenitic steels. Comprehensive nuclear materials, 4, 33-95 (2012).‏
 
5.     K. Nordlund, et al. Improving atomic displacement and replacement calculations with physically realistic damage models. Nature communications, 9.1, 1-8 (2018).‏
 
6.     Greenwood, R.Lawrence, R.K.Smither. SPECTER: Neutron damage calculations for materials irradiations. No. ANL/FPP/TM-197. Argonne National Lab, IL (USA), (1985‏
 
7.   ‏A. Pirouzmand, M. Kazem Dehdashti. Estimation of relative power distribution and power peaking factor in a VVER-1000 reactor core using artificial neural networks. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 85, 17-27 (2015).  ‏
 
8.    S.‌F.‌G.Ardekani, K. Hadad. Monte Carlo evaluation of neutron irradiation damage to the VVER-1000 RPV. Nuclear Energy and Technology, 3.2, 73-80 (2017).
 
9.    T. S. Byun, N. Hashimoto, K. Farrell. Deformation mode map of irradiated 316 stainless steel in true stress–dose space. Journal of nuclear materials, 351.1-3, 303-315 (2006).‏ ‏
 
10. E. H. Lee, et al. Origin of hardening and deformation mechanisms in irradiated 316 LN austenitic stainless steel. Journal of nuclear materials 296.1-3, 183-191 (2001).
 
11.   L. S. Waters, MCNPX user’s manual. Los Alamos National Laboratory, (2002).‏
 
12. W. Dorchester, RSICC COMPUTER CODE COLLECTION WIMS-D4. Atomic Energy Establishment, (1990).‏
 
13. P. K. Romano, N. E. Horelik, B. R. Herman, A. G. Nelson, B. Forget, K. Smith, OpenMC: A State-of-the-Art Monte Carlo Code for Research and Development, Ann. Nucl. Energy, 82, 90–97 (2015).
 
14. L. R. Greenwood, SPECOMP calculations of radiation damage in compounds. Reactor Dosimetry: Methods, Applications, and Standardization. ASTM International, (1989).‏
 
15.  K. Cass, An Evaluation and Validation of the Computer Code SPECTER for Use in Nuclear Materials Science Research. Diss. Pennsylvania State University, (2015).‏
 
16. ASTM E693-12, Standard Practice for Charactersing Neutron Exposures in Iron and Low Alloy Steels in Terms of Displacements Per Atom (DPA), E 706 (ID).

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