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Recent studies associated with light water reactors (LWR) in both the USA and Russia have raised the question of void swelling in austenitic components of core internals. One question of particular interest is the range of temperatures over which voids can develop, especially the lowest temperature. To address this question a flow restrictor component manufactured from annealed X18H9T was removed from the reflector region of the BN-350 fast reactor, located in Kazakhstan. During operation this component spanned temperatures and dpa rates of direct interest to pressurized water reactors (PWRs) in the West and VVERs in Russia. This steel is analogous to AISI 321 and is used in Russian reactors for applications where AISI 304 would be used in the West and in Japan. This component was sectioned on a very fine scale to determine in what range of conditions voids existed. Microstructural data were obtained for 157 separate locations, with 111 specimens showing voids over the relevant range of temperatures and displacement rates, allowing construction of a parametric map of swelling with temperature, dpa and dpa rate. These data show that swelling at doses as high as ∼50 dpa persists down to ∼306°C for dose rates in the range 0.11 × 10-7 to 1.6 × 10-7dpa/sec. Since the helium generation rate is rather low in the spectral environment of the flow restrictor, the early onset of swelling is attributed primarily to the lower displacement rate, a conclusion supported by a number of other experimental studies.

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Russian ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steels EP-450, EP-852, and EP-823 were irradiated in the BN-350 fast reactor in the form of gas-pressurized creep tubes. The first steel is used in Russia for hexagonal wrappers in fast reactors. The other steels were developed for compatibility with Pb-Bi coolants and serve to enhance our understanding of the general behavior of this class of steels. In an earlier paper we published data on irradiation creep of EP-450 and EP-823 at temperatures between 390–520°C, with dpa levels ranging from 20–60 dpa. In the current paper, new data on the irradiation creep and swelling of EP-450 and EP-852 at temperatures between 305–335°C and doses ranging from 61–89 dpa are presented. Where comparisons are possible, it appears that these steels exhibit behavior that is very consistent with that of Western steels. Swelling is relatively low at high neutron exposure and confined to temperatures < 420°C, but it may be camouflaged somewhat by precipitation-related densification. These irradiation creep studies confirm that the creep compliance of F/M steels is about one-half that of austenitic steels.

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