Precipitation in long term thermally aged high copper, high nickel model RPV steel welds

Copper precipitation in irradiated RPV steels is well known to have a deleterious effect on mechanical properties. In order to understand the contribution of thermal ageing to RPV embrittlement a high copper (0.44 at.%), high nickel (1.6 at.%) model RPV weld was thermally aged at 365 °C for times up to 90,000 h. Atom Probe Tomography (APT) was employed to study the precipitation of solutes, primarily copper, nickel, manganese and silicon within the matrix and at grain boundaries. As expected, a high number density of 1–4 nm radius copper rich precipitates was observed. Nickel, manganese and silicon were found at the precipitate matrix interface, and the evolution of the composition of this interface was investigated with ageing time. Segregation of solutes to grain boundaries particularly P, Mo and C was observed, along with enrichments of Ni, Mn and Si, which have not previously been reported in long term thermally aged RPV steels. Preliminary results on several large (>10 nm) Ni–Mn–Si rich features observed at a grain boundary are also presented. These features are rich in Ni (∼30%), Mn (∼15%) and Si (∼12%) and are virtually copper-free.