Irradiation hardening of reduced activation martensitic steels

Irradiation response on the tensile properties of 9Cr-2W steels has been investigated following FFTF/MOTA irradiations at temperatures between 646 and 873 K up to doses between 10 and 59 dpa. The largest irradiation hardening accompanied by the largest decrease in the elongation is observed for the specimens irradiated at 646 K at doses between 10 and 15 dpa. The irradiation hardening appears to saturate at a dose of around 10 dpa at the irradiation temperature. No hardening but softening was observed in the specimens irradiated at above 703 K to doses of 40 and 59 dpa. Microstructural observation by transmission electron microscope (TEM) revealed that the dislocation loops with the a left angle 100 right angle type Burgers vector and small precipitates which were identified to be M6C type carbides existed after the irradiation at below 703 K. As for the void formation, the average size of voids increased with increasing irradiation temperature from 646 to 703 K. No voids were observed above 703 K. Irradiation softening was attributed to the enhanced recovery of martensitic structure under the irradiation. Post-irradiation annealing resulted in hardening by the annealing at 673 K and softening by the annealing at 873 K. (orig.)