Promising Copper Alloy for High Heat Load Applications in Neutron Environments

摘要

Four candidate copper alloys and two elemental coppers were irradiated in the Experimental Breeder Reactor to damage levels of about 3 and 15 dpa at 385 deg C. The irradiated and control samples were evaluated to determine swelling, room temperature tensile properties, transmutation product levels, and electrical resistivity. Transmission electron microscopy was used to characterize the damaged microstructures. Among the six materials studied, the alumina-dispersed copper alloys (Glidcop Al-20 and Al-60 sheet material) exhibited the best, overall resistance to fast neutron damage, as they had minimal swelling and retained their original values of yield strength and electrical resistivity (corrected for transmuted elements) after irradiation. The two cold worked and age-hardened alloys (AMZIRC and MZC) suffered loss of yield strength after irradiation at 385 deg C. The two elemental coppers and the AMZIRC alloy showed large swelling (3.6 to 6.8 vol %) due to void formation after the high neutron fluence. Further study is needed to understand microstructural alterations caused by neutron damage of the alumina-dispersed copper alloy. 10 refs. (ERA citation 11:021759)