4. Conclusion

The expansion of nuclear power plants, combined with increasingly stringent regulatory and quality requirements, has fundamentally changed the specifications that special steels and alloys must meet, necessitating the development of high-quality manufacturing methods to produce high-performance products while keeping costs under control.

It has been shown that the selection of metallic materials for the main components of advanced nuclear reactors is based on rigorous specifications, requiring a combination of multiple physical and mechanical properties to withstand the harsh environment found in reactor cores (high pressure and temperature, thermomechanical transients, primary coolant, and irradiation) as well as accidental conditions.

Continued research efforts remain necessary to better understand certain complex metallurgical phenomena...