Post irradiation examination of RAF/M steels after fast reactor irradiation up to 71 dpa and < 340°C (ARBOR 2) : RAFM steels: metallurgical and mechanical characterisation. (KIT Scientific Reports ; 7596)

The objective of the ARBOR 2 irradiation programme was to study the effects of low-temperature (330-340 °C) high dose (up to 70 dpa) neutron irradiation on the mechanical properties of the European reference structural material for the Demonstration Reactor (DEMO), EUROFER97, its Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) variants, selected technological specimens and other international RAFM steels. The impact, tensile and LCF properties have been studied by implying small specimen testing technology

FOREIGN TRADE OF GEORGIA AND EAST AND CENTRAL EUROPEAN STATES COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

After disintegration of the Soviet Union and subsequent collapse of the traditional system of foreign trade, former soviet Republics and now newly Independent States faced acute problems, which had a tremendous negative impact on all of them. Formation of the new economic relations was a tough process, in which former “Soviet Bloc” States had a preferential position; before long they chose the European course of development. The Course of joining the European Union was declared by Georgia after some period and only in 2014 was signed the Association Agreement. These Agreements turned out to be quite challenging for Georgia as it imposes huge obligations: in the field of Foreign Trade among others. What is the current situation,? And how can we benefit from the Free Trade Agreements? These are the topics of major interest for the present article, in which we use the techniques of comparative analysis. The Analysis is focused on several aspects of foreign trade, such as export geography, major exporting products, changes in foreign trade, based on the assumption that Association Agreement would positively influence export potential and scales of export on the EU market. In addition, Trade Intensification Index in all the above mentioned States is computed in order to find out the export potential utilization on the major markets – the EU, CIS and NAFTA. Trade Intensification Index allowed us to compare the export potential utilization of all the three States. The research led us to the following conclusions: association agreement didn’t support creation of new export products, major exporting groups in every State are stable, the TII revealed that the EU market export potential is best utilized by Eastern and Central European States and the same is true about Georgia on NAFTA

Comparative small angle neutron scattering (SANS) study of Eurofer97 steel neutron irradiated in mixed (HFR) and fast spectra (BOR60) reactors

AbstractThis contribution presents a comparative microstructural investigation, carried out by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS), of ferritic/martensitic steel Eurofer97 (0.12 C, 9 Cr, 0.2V, 1.08Wwt%) neutron irradiated at two different neutron sources, the HFR-Petten (SPICE experiment) and the BOR60 reactor (ARBOR experiment). The investigated “SPICE” sample had been irradiated to 16dpa at 250°C, the investigated “ARBOR” one had been irradiated to 32dpa at 330°C. The SANS measurements were carried under a 1 T magnetic field to separate nuclear and magnetic SANS components; a reference, un-irradiated Eurofer sample was also measured to evaluate as accurately as possible the genuine effect of the irradiation on the microstructure. The detected increase in the respective SANS cross-sections of these two samples under irradiation is attributed primarily to the presence of micro-voids, for neutron contrast reasons; it is quite similar in the two samples, despite the higher irradiation dose and temperature of the “ARBOR” sample with respect to the “SPICE” one. This is tentatively correlated with the higher helium content produced under HFR irradiation, playing an important role to stabilize the micro-voids under irradiation. In fact, the size distributions obtained by transformation of the SANS data yield a micro-void volume fraction of 1.3% for the “SPICE” sample and of 0.6% for the “ARBOR” one