Saturation behavior of irradiation hardening in F82H irradiated in the HFIR

Full text of publication follows: Post irradiation tensile tests on reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel, F82H have been conducted over the past two decades using Japan Materials Testing Reactor (JMTR) of JAEA, and Fast Flux Testing Facility (FFTF) of PNNL and High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) of ORNL, USA, under Japan/US collaboration programs. According to these results, F82H does not demonstrate irradiation hardening above 673 K up to 60 dpa. The current study has been concentrated on hardening behavior at temperature around 573 K. A series of low temperature irradiation experiment has been conducted at the HFIR under the international collaborative research between JAEA/US-DOE. In this collaboration, the irradiation condition is precisely controlled by the well matured capsule designing and instrumentation. This paper summarizes recent results of the irradiation experiments focused on F82H and its modified steels compared with the irradiation properties database on F82H. Post irradiation tensile tests have been conducted on the F82H and its modified steels irradiated at 573 K and the dose level was up to 25 dpa. According to these results, irradiation hardening of F82H is saturated by 9 dpa and the as-irradiated 0.2 % proof stress is less than 1 GPa at ambient temperature. The deterioration of total elongation was also saturated by 9 dpa irradiation. The ductility of some modified steels which showed larger total elongation than that of F82H before irradiation become the same level as that of standard F82H steel after irradiation, even though its magnitude of irradiation hardening is smaller than that of F82H. This suggests that the more ductile steel demonstrates the more ductility loss at this temperature, regardless to the hardening level. The difference in ductility loss behavior between various tensile specimens will be discussed as the ductility could depend on the specimen dimension. (authors)