I. Shibahara et al., SWELLING OF ADVANCED AUSTENITIC STAINLESS-STEELS DEVELOPED FOR THE ENVIRONMENT OF HEAVY NEUTRON EXPOSURE, Journal of nuclear materials, 215, 1994, pp. 487-491
Modified Type-316 and higher-nickel advanced austenitic steels were ir
radiated in the FFTF and JOYO fast reactors to a neutron dose as high
as 210 dpa. At temperatures greater than 500 degrees C, P-, Si-, and T
i-bearing cold-worked austenitic steels showed significant swelling su
ppression even after 150 dpa. The dominant mechanism is associated wit
h formation of stable phosphide precipitated by addition of Ti and/or
increased Si. In the lower-temperature regime, where the phosphide pre
cipitate is not present, silicon acts to suppress swelling at contents
of about 0.8 wt%. Only at this higher silicon level, increased amount
s of nickel reduced the swelling. At 0.5 wt% silicon, the swelling was
insensitive to the alloying elements, such as Ni, Ti and P. The effec
t of Si and Ni could be explained by their influence on void nucleatio
n through effects on effective vacancy diffusion coefficient. Further
improvement in swelling was expected by increasing the nickel and poss
ibly the phosphorus contents of the advanced austenitics.