Abstract
Hydrogen is produced in nuclear reactors as a by-product of the corrosion reaction between the pressure vessel and the cooling water, where hydrogen produced may enter the metal in atomic form. During operation a reactor vessel is exposed to avalanche of neutron irradiation fluxes, in addition to corrosion from cooling water.
A novel cluster dynamics model that accounts for off-stoichiometry of clusters and matrix was developed and applied to investigate the clustering behavior of Hydrogen-vacancy and Hydrogen-interstitial clusters in proton irradiated stainless steel has been developed. The differences in point defect migration energies and binding energy of H to lattice defects, makes it possible to have vacancy and interstitial clusters having compositions different from those of pure iron. The model predicts populations of Defect-Hydrogen complexes in iron.
The model is applied to the early stage formation of voids and dislocation loops in stainless steel in the presence of atomic hydrogen. This study investigates the effect of irradiation dose and temperature on the concentration of vacancy-Hydrogen (VmHn) and Intersitial Fe-H (FemHn) complexes on bulk α-Iron. The re
