Irradiation response of ODS Eurofer97 steel

Evolution of microstructure in advanced ferritic-martensitic steels under irradiation: the origin of low temperature radiation embrittlement

“…TEM study also showed an increase in density of small (< 5 nm) oxide particles [23]. The yield stress of ODS Eurofer under neutron irradiation at 300 °C increases by ~ 10% per 1 dpa up to a few dpa [18,19], and after irradiation to 40 dpa it increases by 116% [9]. In our estimation, the contributions to hardening from nanoclusters and dislocation loops are comparable and can explain the total experimental hardening of ODS Eurofer irradiated in ARBOR 1 project.…”

“…The increase in yield strength of ODS Eurofer due to oxide dispersed strengthening is about 500 MPa at RT, and 330 MPa at 550 °C [18]. Under irradiation, characteristics (size, number density) of these obstacles change, and some new obstacle types can also appear.…”

“…Irradiation of Eurofer 97 at temperatures of 300-335°C to 70 dpa resulted in a ductile to brittle transition temperature (DBTT) shift of more than 200°C. Specimens of ODS Eurofer steels were irradiated in HFR reactor to the doses of 1 and 3 dpa [18], in High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at ORNL to 1.5 dpa [19], in the Belgian Reactor 2 (BR2) in Mol up to of 1.73 dpa [20]. In Arbor 1 and 2 projects ODS Eurofer was irradiated up to 32 [8] and 40 dpa [9], correspondingly.…”

Helium behavior in ferritic/martensitic steels irradiated in spallation target

“…In order to investigate the behavior of these materials in such severe irradiation conditions, various irradiation experiments in spallation conditions have been conducted in the past [1][2][3]. Spallation environment enables one to induce a high displacement damage in a relatively short time, comparable to high flux research reactors [4,5]. In comparison to reactor irradiation, however, spallation irradiation can introduce a much more severe embrittlement effect, which can be attributed to helium [6].…”

Helium effects on creep properties of Fe–14CrWTi ODS steel at 650 °C

“…To deploy ODS steels in nuclear applications detailed optimise production processing [11], mechanical characterization [2,3] and corrosion testing [12,13] have been performed, including investigation of microstructural evolution during manufacturing processes, thermal loading and plastic deformation [14,15]. Meanwhile effects of irradiation on tensile properties [6,16,17], fracture [17], irradiation creep [9,18,19], and microstructural changes [6,20,21] of this class of materials have been studied as well. It is emphasized here that besides displacement damage, fast neutrons will produce substantial amounts of helium in the materials via (n, a) transmutation reactions.…”