Swelling and microstructure of austenitic stainless steel ChS-68 CW after high dose neutron irradiation

Austenitic stainless steel ChS-68 serving as fuel pin cladding was irradiated in the 20% cold-worked condition in the BN-600 fast reactor in the range 56–84 dpa. This steel was developed to replace EI-847 which was limited by its insufficient resistance to void swelling. Comparison of swelling between EI-847 and ChS-68 under similar irradiation conditions showed improvement of the latter steel by an extended transient regime of an additional ∼10 dpa. Concurrent with swelling was the development of a variety of phases. In the temperature range 430–460 °С where the temperature peak of swelling was located, the principal type of phase generated during irradiation was G-phase, with volume fraction increasing linearly with dose to ∼0.5% at 84 dpa. While the onset of swelling is concurrent with formation of G-phase, the action of G-phase cannot be confidently ascribed to significant removal from solution of swelling-suppressive elements such as silicon. A plausible mechanism for the higher resistance to void swelling of ChS-68 as compared with EI-847 may be related to an observed higher stability of faulted dislocation loops in ChS-68 that impedes the formation of a glissile dislocation network. The higher level of boron in ChS-68 is thought to be one contributor that might play this role.