News from IPNS

Niobium-base alloys are candidate materials for the dive structure in fusion reactors. For this application, the materials should exhibit resistance to aqueous corrosion, hydrogen embrittlement, and radiation damage and should have high thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion. Results of corrosion and embrittlement screening tests of several binary and ternary alloys in high-temperature water indicated that Nb-1Zr, Nb-5Mo-1Zr and Nb-5V-1Zr (wt.%) showed sufficient promise for further investigation. These alloys, together with pure Nb and Zircaloy-4, have been exposed to high-purity water containing a low concentration of dissolved oxygen (