Microstructural development of tungsten and tungsten-rhenium alloys due to neutron irradiation in HFIR

The microstructural development of pure tungsten (W) and tungsten-rhenium (Re) alloys due to neutron irradiation in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN, USA, was investigated in this work. The irradiation conditions were ∼1 displacements per atom (dpa) at 500 and 800 °C. After the neutron irradiation, microstructural observations were performed using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Large amounts of precipitates identified as sigma- and chi-phases were observed in not only the W-Re alloys but also in the pure W after the neutron irradiation. The precipitates observed in the pure W were coarse and larger than those in the W-Re alloys. This was considered to be caused by the transmutation products of W and Re, namely, Re and osmium (Os), respectively, under irradiation in the HFIR with a higher contents of thermal neutron flux.