Development of Stainless Steels in Nuclear Industry: with Emphasis on Sodium Cooled Fast Spectrum Reactors: History, Technology and Foresight

摘要

Stainless steels (SS) have earned a unique position as a widely accepted class of alloys with track record of steadily improving the performance and increasing applications from 1913 till date. This distinction is attributed to R&D, innovations and applications leading to harnessing the rare combination of properties of stainless steels, since its discovery hundred years back. Though the initial discovery of stainless steel is basically serendipity, and based on previous work, its indispensable position today, in many a wide range of applications is due to intense R&D efforts in understanding its physical, chemical, thermal and thermo-mechanical response for various chemistries and microstructures. A deliberate attempt to extend its application spectrum through various routes of manufacturing in the last century is another crucial aspect of the success story. The first part of the presentation would briefly review this exciting journey of unravelling the mysteries of stainless steels.