SANS examination of irradiated RPV steel welds during in-situ annealing

Results for a low-Ni weld irradiated at low temperature showed apparent decreases in the volume fraction of solute clusters during annealing. However the cluster size was unaffected and these results could have arisen from reduced scattering contrast due to compositional changes, rather than cluster dissolution. A similarly irradiated high-Ni weld exhibited cluster coarsening at high annealing temperatures. Samples of both welds irradiated at a higher temperature were relatively unaffected by annealing except at high temperatures where some shrinkage, indicative of cluster dissolution, occurred.