Dissemination of IT for the Promotion of Materials Science (DoITPoMS)

DoITPoMS Teaching & Learning Packages Materials for Nuclear Power Generation Mechanisms of Radiation Damage 2
Materials for Nuclear Power Generation AimsBefore you startIntroduction to Nuclear ProcessesIntroduction to Nuclear Power GenerationCross-SectionsMechanisms of Radiation Damage 1Mechanisms of Radiation Damage 2Effects of Radiation DamageFuel and CladdingModeratorsSummaryQuestionsGoing further
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Mechanisms of Radiation Damage 2

Formation of Dislocation Loops

Both the interstitial atoms and vacancies can diffuse through the lattice, but the interstitial atoms are more mobile. Both interstitials and vacancies are eventually removed from the lattice (when they reach sinks such as dislocations or grain boundaries). However, they are also always being generated by the neutron radiation. Thus steady-state populations of interstitials and vacancies are formed.

There is a tendency for interstitial atoms and vacancies respectively to aggregate together into discs. This is again illustrated through an animation, below:

When there is a sufficient supersaturation of vacancies, the disc of vacancies grows and the gap between the planes on either side collapses to form a continuous lattice with a dislocation loop. Since the Burgers vector is normal to the plane loop, it is an edge dislocation and grows/shrinks by climb and moves by glide along a prism; it is termed a prismatic loop.

Nucleation and Growth of Voids

Vacancy dislocation loops should reduce the volume of the material whilst interstitial dislocation loops should increase it, as seen in the animation above. And, in general, we expect compensating vacancy and interstitial effects to leave the material with approximately the same volume. However, irradiated materials are in fact observed to swell.

To explain this, we consider what happens when vacancy loops join together. In practice, when the loops join they form three dimensional cavities a few nm in diameter. These voids contribute no net change in volume to the material, and so this just leaves the interstitial loops, which do lead to swelling in the material.

In the absence of any driving force, it would seem unlikely that enough voids would form for any appreciable effect to be observed on the material. This is where the transmutation of nickel becomes important, since the helium atoms produced are very small and are thus extremely mobile as interstitial atoms in the lattice. They quickly form bubbles, and these helium bubbles can act as nucleation points for void formation.

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