Environmentally assisted cracking of Eurofer 97 in water

Environmentally assisted cracking of Eurofer 97 in fusion reactor conditions is being considered in two environments, namely high temperature water and eutectic liquid Pb–Li alloy. For both stress corrosion cracking (SCC) as well as liquid metal embrittlement (LME), the yield stress of the material has been identified as a key parameter. Neutron irradiation is an important factor in determining the yield stress of materials in reactor components during their service. In this work, the influence of irradiation on the mechanical behaviour and stress corrosion cracking in water is reviewed. It is shown that proper water chemistry control is able to suppress the occurrence of SCC in irradiated materials. This result allows to formulate safe operating conditions for mildly irradiated components with respect to stress corrosion cracking.