THE MISSION FOR fusion and fission

摘要

Dr Xiaoou Yi, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, outlined the challenges facing materials for nuclear reactors at the Materials for Fusion and Fission Power (MFFP) Showcase at the University of Oxford in December 2014. Subject to neutron exposure and increasingly high temperatures, the materials in nuclear reactors risk displacement damage and transmutations, giving rise to point defects, clusters, dislocations, voids and precipitates. Massive changes in a material's microstructure often result in the degradation of properties, which manifest in radiation hardening and embrittlement, radiation-induced precipitation, high-temperature hydrogen embrittlement, irradiation creep and volumetric swelling. These defects compromise functionality and, crucially, safety.