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Abstract
Post-irradiation annealing studies indicate small defect clusters may be a potential contributor to IASCC. In this study, small defect clusters and their behavior during annealing are examined. A CP-304 SS alloy was irradiated with 3.2 MeV protons to 0.17 dpa at <75°C. The increase in hardness after 0.17 dpa at <75°C was greater than that after 0.55 dpa at 360°C, but dropped significantly after annealing at 350°C for short times, although, no dislocation damage was observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). For samples irradiated in a previous study at 360°C, the smallest dislocation loops and clusters were removed preferentially during annealing at 500°C for 45 minutes. Computer simulations of the annealing behavior were performed for the data from both sets of experiments in order to gain further insight into the nature of small clusters.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to M. Hash, R. Dropek, S. Bialik, L. Fournier, B. Grambau, Y. Wang, Q. Yu, and X. Zu for their assistance. Also, we thank Victor Rotberg, O. Toader and the University of Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory for the use of the irradiation facilities and the Electron Microscope Analysis Laboratory and staff at the University of Michigan. Research at the University of Michigan was supported under U.S. Department of Energy grant DE-FG07-991D13768. Support was provided by Cooperative IASCC Research (CIR) program through EPRI contract EP-P3038/C1434. Research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory supported by the Materials Sciences Branch, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, under Contract DE-AC06-76RLO 1830.