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Microstructural Kinetics in Alloys Undergoing Transmutations: Application to Aic Neutron Absorbers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

C. Desgranges ,
G. Martin  and
F. Defoort
C. Desgranges
Affiliation:
FRAMATOME, Nuclear Fuel, 10 rue Juliette Récamier, F69456 Lyon, France
G. Martin
Affiliation:
CEA-Saclay, Section Recherches Métallurgie Physique, F91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France
F. Defoort
Affiliation:
FRAMATOME, Nuclear Fuel, 10 rue Juliette Récamier, F69456 Lyon, France
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Abstract

Whenever an alloy changes composition because of metal to metal transmutations, as is the case in Ag-In-Cd alloys undergoing (n, −) actions in the control rods of Pressurised Water Reactors, unique features may develop.

A simple model shows that in a two components alloy more than two phases can coexist under appropriate irradiation conditions i.e. temperature, which scales diffusivities and solubilities, and flux, which scales the transmutations rate; because second phase precipitation occurs at the grain boundaries, the grain size in the underlying matrix is found to be one important parameter of the process.

The above ideas are illustrated on a multicomponent alloy, the thermodynamics and the kinetics of which are treated at the same level of sophistication in a mean field approximation.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 439: Symposium B – Microstructure Evolution During Irradiation , 1996 , 401
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

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References

1. for a review cf. Garner, F.A. Materials Science and Technology, 10A (Ed. Cahn, R.W., Haasen, P., Kramer, E.J., VCH 1994) p. 419; see also Gittus, J. Irradiation Effects in Crystalline Solids, (Applied Science Publisher, England, 1978) p. 201.Google Scholar
2. The question of the dissolution of a precipitate induced by an increase of solubility resulting from transmutations in the matrix has been treated in: Platov, Y.M. and Pletnev, M.N., J. Nucl. Mater., 211, 35 (1994).Google Scholar
3. Martin, G. and Bellon, P., Solid State Physics, 50, 189 (1997).Google Scholar
4. Desgranges, C., Defoort, F., Poissonnet, S. and Martin, G., Proc. DIMAT'96, in Mater. Sci. Forum, in the press.Google Scholar
5. Martin, G., Phys. Rev. B 41, 2279 (1990).Google Scholar
6. Vaks, V.G., JETP Lett. 63, 471 (1996).Google Scholar