Institute of Metals Division - Embrittlement of Molybdenum by Neutron Radiation

Commercially pure molybdenum specimens were irradiated in the Materials Testing Reactor for an estimated exposure of 1.9 to 5.9x10 20 thermal nvt. Prior to irradiation, the material was ductile in the tension test; whereas after irradiation, it was brittle. The results of tension tests conducted at various temperatures revealed that the transition temperature for this material had been increased from —30' to +70°C as a result of the radiation exposure. From metallographic studies, it is concluded that the embrittlement is due to submicroscopic changes which raise the flow stress-temperature curve of the material. PRIOR to ten years ago, the bombardment of metals with high speed heavy particles such as protons, deuterons, a particles, and neutrons was primarily of academic interest. These particles existed in extremely small numbers in a few laboratories and only under very special conditions. With the introduction of the nuclear power reactors, these particles are now available in enormous quantities and it has become important from a practical standpoint to learn how well metals withstand severe reactor radiations. The principal radiations of concern in reactors are neutrons and y rays, since the heavier charged particles exist only in limited regions of reactors. Seitz,' in a theoretical approach, has shown that all of these high energy particles, except y rays, have enough energy to knock atoms from lattice sites and that these knocked-on atoms have enough energy to cause additional displacements of neighboring atoms. The result of this process would be a lattice containing many imperfections in the form of interstitial atoms and vacancies. Hence, it would be expected that the properties of metals can be changed by reactor radiations, and such has been found to be the case. Only a limited amount of data have been published in the open literature,2,3 and these data have been for relatively low integrated-neutron-flux exposures. In general, one effect of reactor radiations on the mechanical properties of metals has been to increase strength and decrease ductility. It is now possible to irradiate specimens in the Materials Testing reactor at much higher fluxes and to higher integrated exposures than previously possible.' The data which are being presented here describe the effects of a relatively high exposure on some mechanical properties of molybdenum. Experimental Procedures Material: The molybdenum used in this investigation was obtained from the Climax Molybdenum Co. The two heats from which the material originated were melted under a vacuum of 5 to 30 microns and cast in 7 in. diam water-cooled copper molds. One ingot contained 0.061 pct C and the other 0.066 pct. Both ingots were hot worked by extrusion and rolling into % in. diam rods, after which they were annealed and straightened. The rods were subsequently heated to 1100°C in a hydrogen atmosphere and swaged to ½ in. diam rods at the Research Laboratory of the General Electric Co. The resulting material had an average hardness of 264 VPN, or 99.2 Rb, and had an average of 5000 grains per sq ml in the transverse section, Test Specimens: Substandard-size tensile specimens were prepared according to the specifications shown in Fig. 1. These specimens were used also for hardness measurements. The metallographic specimens were small disks which were polished, etched, and photographed at X1000 prior to irradiation. The field studied was