RADIATION RESISTANT LUBRICANTS—THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND STATUS Progress Report for May 1, 1951 through June 30, 1954

摘要

Advanced design, construction, and operation of power reactors have emphasized specific applications for which radiation resistant lubricants are required. Renewed effort on the development of such materials has thus been stimulated. This report summarizes the information from gamma radiation stability experiments and lubrica¬tion functional tests in the absence of radiation performed by California Research since 1951.nIn applications where viscosity change is not critical, conventional mineral oil and synthetic base lubricating fluids may be used, in the substantial absence of air, for incident gamma radiation dosages up to about 10 R. In cases, e.g., in aviation usage, where only small viscosity changes are permissible, the limit¬ing dosage is about half this value. The presence of air also gener¬ally lowers this limiting dosage by a factor of two.