Recent progress on development of vanadium alloys for fusion

Considerable progress has been made toward development of vanadium alloys for fusion. Much of the recent research has focused on vanadium alloys containing 4-5% Cr and 4-5% Ti, but a number of alternative compositions and processing routes have been explored in an effort to achieve improved performance. The goal of this paper is to review significant new results and to highlight critical issues that remain for future research. Progress in understanding the influence of interstitial impurities on microstructural evolution in both thermal and radiation environments are covered. The current state of knowledge of hardening and embrittlement of vanadium alloys in response to neutron irradiation is reviewed. Atomic-scale computer simulations to elucidate fundamental irradiation damage mechanisms are presented. The thermal and irradiation creep behavior of V-4Cr-4Ti is summarized along with an overview of the effects of He on tensile properties. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.