SWELLING AND VOID-INDUCED EMBRITTLEMENT OF AUSTENITIC STAINLESS-STEELIRRADIATED TO 73-82 DPA AT 335-365-DEGREES-C

Conventional wisdom holds that void swelling of stainless steels falls strongly in swelling rate at temperatures below 400 degrees C and sho uld not reach large swelling levels even at high dpa levels. This perc eption may be incorrect as demonstrated by an irradiation of the Russi an steel EI-847 which, in both the annealed and cold worked conditions , reached swelling levels in the BN-350 fast reactor on the order of g reater than or equal to 10% at temperatures of 335-365 degrees C and d oses of 73-82 dpa. Consistent with expectations based on earlier studi es of other steels at these swelling levels, the steel was found to be exceptionally brittle and to have failed with a rather unusual failur e mode. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.