Study on the cold working process for FM steel cladding tubes

A cold working process for FM steel cladding tubes of the sodium-cooled fast reactor was studied. Hot-rolled 9Cr–2W steel plates were heat-treated to dissolve the M23C6 and V-rich MX precipitates into the matrix, followed by several cold rollings and intermediate/final heat treatments with the purpose of nucleating the dissolved precipitates on the dislocations formed through the cold rolling. As a result, it was possible to obtain the FM steels with very fine and uniform precipitates which were more promising for superior tensile properties.