Stability of ferritic steel to higher doses: Survey of reactor pressure vessel steel data and comparison with candidate materials for future nuclear systems

•Common embrittlement trend between RPV and advanced steels till intermediate doses.•For doses >1.5 dpa, damage rate saturation tendency is observed for RPV steels.•RPV steels might be conveniently utilised also outside their foreseen dose range.

This paper is illustrating the potential of the well-known low alloyed clean steels, extensively used for the current light water Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPV) steels, for a likely use as a structural material also for the new generation nuclear systems. This option would provide, especially for large components, affordable, easily accessible and a technically more convenient solution in terms of manufacturing and joining techniques.A comprehensive comparison between several sets of surveillance and research data available for a number of RPV clean steels for doses up to 1.5 dpa, and up to 12 dpa for 9%Cr steels, is carried out in order to evaluate radiation stability of the currently used RPV clean steels even at higher doses. Based on the numerous data available, positive preliminary conclusions are drawn regarding the eventual use of clean RPV steels for the massive structural components of the new reactor systems.