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Synchrotron radiation-based materials characterization techniques shed light on molten salt reactor alloys

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Abstract

From a safety point of view, it is important to study the damages and reliability of molten salt reactor structural alloy materials, which are subjected to extreme environments due to neutron irradiation, molten salt corrosion, fission product attacks, thermal stress, and even combinations of these. In the past few years, synchrotron radiation-based materials characterization techniques have proven to be effective in revealing the microstructural evolution and failure mechanisms of the alloys under surrogating operation conditions. Here, we review the recent progress in the investigations of molten salt corrosion, tellurium (Te) corrosion, and alloy design. The valence states and distribution of chromium (Cr) atoms, and the diffusion and local atomic structure of Te atoms near the surface of corroded alloys have been investigated using synchrotron radiation techniques, which considerably deepen the understandings on the molten salt and Te corrosion behaviors. Furthermore, the structure and size distribution of the second phases in the alloys have been obtained, which are helpful for the future development of new alloy materials.

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  1. Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China

    Li Jiang, **ang-** Ye & Zhi-Jun Li

  2. Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Bei**g, 100135, China

    De-Jun Wang

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Correspondence to De-Jun Wang or Zhi-Jun Li.

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This work was supported by the National key research and development program of China (Nos. 2016YFB0700401 and 2016YFB0700404), Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (Nos. 19ZR1468200 and 18ZR1448000), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51671154, 51601213 and 51671122), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA02004210), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Science (No. 2019264).

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Jiang, L., Ye, XX., Wang, DJ. et al. Synchrotron radiation-based materials characterization techniques shed light on molten salt reactor alloys. NUCL SCI TECH 31, 6 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-019-0719-7

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