Effect of stacking fault energy on the neutron radiation induced defect accumulation in stainless steels

Current knowledge highlights the radiation induced segregation (RIS) and the radiation hardening as the two main effects on irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC). Stacking fault energy is considered as a key parameter of materials, which can influence IASCC of stainless steels in nuclear light water reactor (LWR), because it plays an important role in every process of plastic deformation, work hardening and creep behaviour. The study of the impact of SFE variations on the plastic deformation and SCC behaviour of irradiated and unirradiated austenitic steels will contribute to the understanding of IASCC mechanism. The objectives of this work, as a task within the FP6-European Project PERFECT, are to investigate the influence of the SFE on IASCC susceptibility of stainless steels, to correlation n-irradiation induced defect production, accumulation and mechanical deformation behaviour with SFE by using the state of the art experimental tools such as transmission electron microscope (TEM), positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS), slow strain rate tests (SSRT) in simulated LWR conditions