Potential high fluence response of pressure vessel internals constructed from austenitic stainless steels

Many of the in-core components in pressurized water reactors are constructed of austenitic stainless steels. The potential behavior of these components can be predicted using data on similar steels irradiated at much higher displacement rates in liquid-metal reactors or water-cooled mixed-spectrum reactors. Consideration of the differences between the pressurized water environment and that of the other reactors leads to the conclusion that significant amounts of void swelling, irradiation creep, and embrittlement will occur in some components, and that the level of damage per atomic displacement may be larger that the level of damage per atomic displacement may be larger in the pressurized water environment