Extreme embrittlement of austenitic stainless steel irradiated to 75--81 dpa at 335--360 C

This paper presents the results of an experiment conducted in the BN-350 fast reactor in Kazakhstan that involved the irradiation of argon-pressurized thin-walled tubes (0--2000 MPa hoop stress) constructed from Fe-16Cr-15Ni-3Mo-Nb stabilized steel in contact with the sodium coolant, which enters the reactor at ∼270 C. Tubes in the annealed condition reached 75 dpa at 335 C, and another set in the 20% cold-worked condition reached 81 dpa at 360 C. Upon disassembly all tubes, except those in the stress-free condition, were found to have failed in an extremely brittle fashion. The stress-free tubes exhibited diameter changes that imply swelling levels ranging from 9 to 16%. It is expected that stress-enhancement of swelling induced even larger swelling levels in the stressed tubes. The embrittlement is explained in terms of the sensitivity of the swelling regime to displacement rate and the large, unprecedented levels of swelling reached at 335--360 C at these high neutron fluences. The failure mechanism appears to be identical to that observed at similar swelling levels in other austenitic steels irradiated in US fast reactors at 400--425 C, whereby stress-concentration between voids and nickel segregation at void surfaces predisposes the steel to an epsilon martensite transformation followed by formation of alpha martensite at crack tips. The very slow strain rate inherent in such creep tests and the relatively high helium levels may also contribute to the failure