Nonuniform swelling and hydrogen redistribution in zirconium hydride underneutron irradiation

Swelling, hydride composition. distributions of microhardness and thermoele ctric power in cross sections of zirconium hydride samples irradiated in th e BN-600 reactor with neutron fluence of similar to 6.0.10(26) n/m(2) (E > 0) in the temperature range of 670-770 K have been investigated, A correlat ion of microhardness increment and swelling has been established. Swelling in outer layers of materials turned out to be twice of that in inner ones. This fact is due to variations of neutron flux and energy release-radiation heat generation ina bulk of zirconium hydride under fission gamma ray and neutron irradiations. (C) 1999 International Association for Hydrogen Energ y. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.