Effect of irradiation temperature and dose on SHC of pure Cu

Radiation hardening of pure copper is sufficiently well investigated. At the same time, such important problem as the effect of neutron irradiation on strain-hardening coefficient (SHC) of pure Cu and copper alloys is poorly investigated, though these data are important for calculation of stress-strained state of the ITER components. This paper presents the results of investigation into the effect of neutron irradiation temperature and dose on SHC of pure Cu. The results of processing of true stress–strain curves of pure Cu shows that under neutron irradiation in the range of 80–200 °С SHC decreases monotonously with increase in irradiation dose. The conclusion is made that degradation in SHC under irradiation for copper alloys should be taken into account during the stress analysis of ITER components.