Patent ID: 8721810

Claim:
A method of treating at least a portion of at least one component of a reactor core of a nuclear fission reactor, the method comprising: in a reactor core of a nuclear fission reactor, elevating, from an operating temperature range of the nuclear fission reactor to an annealing temperature range of at least one selected component of the reactor core, a temperature of a region that includes the at least one selected component of the reactor core for a time period sufficient to produce annealing of at least a portion of the at least one selected component without removing the at least one selected component from the reactor core by adjusting operational parameters of the nuclear fission reactor to establish operating conditions of the region of the nuclear fission reactor containing the at least one selected component within the determined annealing temperature range for a period of time selected to produce annealing of at least the portion of the at least one selected component; stopping elevating, from the operating temperature range of the nuclear fission reactor to the annealing temperature range of the at least one selected component of the reactor core, a temperature of the region that includes the at least one selected component of the reactor core; and post-anneal treating at least the portion of the at least one selected component by lowering temperature from the annealing temperature range to a quenching temperature range.