An improved correlation procedure for subsize and full-size Charpy impact specimen data

The possibility of using subsize specimens to monitor the properties of reactor pressure vessel steels is receiving increasing attention for light-water reactor plant life extension. This potential results from the possibility of cutting samples of small volume form the internal surface of the pressure vessel for determination of the actual properties of the operating pressure vessel. In addition, plant life extension will require supplemental data that cannot be provided by existing surveillance programs. Testing of subsize specimens manufactured from broken halves of previously tested surveillance Charpy specimens offers an attractive means of extending existing surveillance programs. Using subsize Charpy V-notch-type specimens requires the establishment of a specimen geometry that is adequate to obtain a ductile-to-brittle transition curve similar to that obtained from full-size specimens, and the development of correlations for transition temperature and upper-shelf energy (USE) level between subsize and full-size specimens. Five different geometries of subsize specimens were selected for testing and evaluation. The specimens were made from several types of pressure vessel steels with a wide range of yield strengths, transition temperatures, and USEs. The effects of specimen dimensions, including notch depth, angle, and radius, have been studied. The correlations of transition temperatures determined from different types of subsize specimens and the full-size specimens are presented. A new procedure for transforming data from subsize specimens is developed. The transformed data are in good agreement with data from full-size specimens for materials that have USE levels less than 200 J

Effects of thermal annealing and reirradiation on toughness of reactor pressure vessel steels

One of the options to mitigate the effects of irradiation on reactor pressure vessels (RPV) is to thermally anneal them to restore the toughness properties that have been degraded by neutron irradiation. This paper summarizes recent experimental results from work performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to study the annealing response, or {open_quotes}recovery,{close_quotes} of several irradiated RPV steels; it also includes recent results from both ORNL and the Russian Research Center-Kurchatov Institute (RRC-KI) on a cooperative program of irradiation, annealing and reirradiation of both U.S. and Russian RPV steels. The cooperative program was conducted under the auspices of Working Group 3, U.S./Russia Joint Coordinating Committee for Civilian Nuclear Reactor Safety (JCCCNRS). The materials investigated are an RPV plate and various submerged-arc welds, with tensile, Charpy impact toughness, and fracture toughness results variously determined. Experimental results are compared with applicable prediction guidelines, while observed differences in annealing responses and reirradiation rates are discussed

The effects of thermal annealing on fracture toughness of low upper-shelf welds

Experimental results are presented from a study of the effects of thermal annealing on recovery of fracture toughness of low upper-shelf submerged-arc welds (weld designations 61W through 67W) from the Heavy-Section Steel Irradiation (HSSI) Program Second and Third Irradiation Series. Most of the study was conducted to evaluate the effects of annealing on the J-R curves of the submerged-arc welds. The recovery of fracture toughness in the transition range as the result of annealing was studied for welds 63W, 64, and 65W only. Compact specimens of 12.7- and 20.3-mm-thick (0.5T and 0.8T, respectively) were tested in this study. The specimens had been previously irradiated at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Bulk Shielding Reactor. Each weld was irradiated to a certain value of neutron fluence in the range from 0.4 to 1.3 {times} 10{sup 19} neutrons/cm{sup 2} (> 1 MeV) in the average temperature range of 275 to 300 C. Annealing of the irradiated specimens was done at 454 C for 168 h. Fracture toughness tests were performed at temperatures selected to match those of the previously conducted unirradiated and irradiated tests

Response of neutron-irradiated RPV steels to thermal annealing

One of the options to mitigate the effects of irradiation on reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) is to thermally anneal them to restore the fracture toughness properties that have been degraded by neutron irradiation. This paper summarizes experimental results of work performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to study the annealing response of several irradiated RPV steels

The boson peak in structural and orientational glasses of simple alcohols: Specific heat at low temperatures

We review in this work specific-heat experiments, that we have conducted on different hydrogen-bonded glasses during last years. Specifically, we have measured the low-temperature specific heat Cp for a set of glassy alcohols: normal and fully-deuterated ethanol, 1- and 2- propanol, and glycerol. Ethanol exhibits a very interesting polymorphism presenting three different solid phases at low temperature: a fully-ordered (monoclinic) crystal, an orientationally-disordered (cubic) crystal or 'orientational glass', and the ordinary structural glass. By measuring and comparing the low-temperature specific heat of the three phases, in the 'boson peak' range 2-10 K as well as in the tunneling-states range below 1K, we are able to provide a quantitative confirmation that ''glassy behavior'' is not an exclusive property of amorphous solids. On the other hand, propanol is the simplest monoalcohol with two different stereoisomers (1- and 2-propanol), what allows us to study directly the influence of the spatial rearrangement of atoms on the universal properties of glasses. We have measured the specific heat of both isomers, finding a noteworthy quantitative difference between them. Finally, low-temperature specific-heat data of glassy glycerol have also been obtained. Here we propose a simple method based upon the soft-potential model to analyze low-temperature specific-heat measurements, and we use this method for a quantitative comparison of all these data of glassy alcohols and as a stringent test of several universal correlations and scaling laws suggested in the literature. In particular, we find that the interstitialcy model for the boson peak [A. V. Granato, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68 (1992) 974] gives a very good account of the temperature at which the maximum in Cp/T^3 occurs.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the 4th International Discussion Meeting on Relaxations in Complex Systems, Hersonissos (Crete), June 2001. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids (accepted for publication

Transparent conductive oxide TCO buffer layer effect on the resistive switching process in metal TCO TiO2 metal assemblies

The effect of transparent conductive oxide TCO buffer layer on the insulator matrix and on the resistive switching process in the metal TiO2 TCO metal assembly was studied depending on the material of TCO ITO In2O3 0.9 SnO2 0.1 or SnO2 or ZnO . First time electro physical studies and near edge x ray absorption fine structure NEXAFS studies were carried out jointly and in the same point of the sample providing the direct experimental evidence that switching process influences strongly the lowest unoccupied bands and local atomic structure of the TiO2 layers. It was established that TCO layer in metal TiO2 TCO metal assembly is an additional source of oxygen vacancies for TiO2 film. The RL RH states are achieved presumably with formation rupture of electrically conductive path of oxygen vacancies. The inserting the Al2O3 thin layer between TiO2 and TCO layers restricts to some extent processes of migration of oxygen ions and vacancies and does not permit to realize the anti clockwise bipolar resistive switching in Au TiO2 Al2O3 ITO Au assembly. The greatest value of the ratio RH RL is observed for assembly with SnO2 buffer layer that will provide to implement the maximum set of intermediate states recording analog data and increases the density of information recording in this cas

Irradiation, Annealing, and Reirradiation Effects on American and Russian Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels

One of the options to mitigate the effects of irradiation on reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) is to thermally anneal them to restore the toughness properties that have been degraded by neutron irradiation. Even though a postirradiation anneal may be deemed successful, a critical aspect of continued RPV operation is the rate of embrittlement upon reirradiation. There are insufficient data available to allow for verification of available models of reirradiation embrittlement or for the development of a reliable predictive methodology. This is especially true in the case of fracture toughness data. Under the U.S.-Russia Joint Coordinating Committee for Civilian Nuclear Reactor Safety (JCCCNRS), Working Group 3 on Radiation Embrittlement, Structural Integrity, and Life Extension of Reactor Vessels and Supports agreed to conduct a comparative study of annealing and reirradiation effects on RPV steels. The Working Group agreed that each side would irradiate, anneal, reirradiate (if feasible ), and test two materials of the other. Charpy V-notch (CVN) and tensile specimens were included. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) conducted such a program (irradiation and annealing, including static fracture toughness) with two weld metals representative of VVER-440 and VVER-1000 RPVs, while the Russian Research Center-Kurchatov Institute (RRC-KI) conducted a program (irradiation, annealing, reirradiation, and reannealing) with Heavy-Section Steel Technology (HSST) Program Plate 02 and Heavy-Section Steel Irradiation (HSSI) Program Weld 73W. The results for each material from each laboratory are compared with those from the other laboratory. The ORNL experiments with the VVER welds included irradiation to about 1 x 10{sup 19} n/cm{sup 2} (>1 MeV), while the RRC-KI experiments with the U.S. materials included irradiations from about 2 to 18 x 10{sup 19} n/cm{sup 2} (>l MeV). In both cases, irradiations were conducted at {approximately}290 C and annealing treatments were conducted at {approximately}454 C. The ORNL and RRC-RI experiments have shown generally good agreement for both the Russian and U.S. steels. While recoveries of the Charpy 41-J transition temperatures were substantial in all cases, significantly less recovery of the lateral expansion and shear fracture in some cases (no recovery in one case) deserves further attention. The RRC-KI results for the U.S. steels showed reirradiation embrittlement rates which are conservative relative to the lateral shift prediction based on Charpy impact energy

Limits on the monopole magnetic field from measurements of the electric dipole moments of atoms, molecules and the neutron

A radial magnetic field can induce a time invariance violating electric dipole moment (EDM) in quantum systems. The EDMs of the Tl, Cs, Xe and Hg atoms and the neutron that are produced by such a field are estimated. The contributions of such a field to the constants, $\chi$ of the T,P-odd interactions $\chi_e {\bf N} \cdot {\bf s}/s$ and $\chi_N {\bf N} \cdot {\bf I}/I$ are also estimated for the TlF, HgF and YbF molecules (where ${\bf s}$ (${\bf I}$) is the electron (nuclear) spin and ${\bf N}$ is the molecular axis). The best limit on the contact monopole field can be obtained from the measured value of the Tl EDM. The possibility of such a field being produced from polarization of the vacuum of electrically charged magnetic monopoles (dyons) by a Coulomb field is discussed, as well as the limit on these dyons. An alternative mechanism involves chromomagnetic and chromoelectric fields in QCD.Comment: Uses RevTex, 16 pages, 4 postscript figures. An explanation of why there is no orbital contribution to the EDM has been added, and the presentation has been improved in genera

On possibility of measurement of the electron beam energy using absorption of radiation by electrons in a magnetic field

The possibility of the precise measurement of the electron beam energy using absorption of radiation by electrons in a static and homogeneous magnetic field in a range up to a few hundred GeV energies, was considered in [1]. With the purpose of experimental checking of this method in a range of several tens MeV energies, the possibility of measurement of absolute energy of the electron beam energy with relative accuracy up to 10^{-4} is examined in details.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure