Structural Component Fabrication and Characterization of Advanced Radiation Resistant ODS Steel for Next Generation Nuclear Systems

In a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), the coolant outlet temperature and peak temperature of the fuel cladding tube will be about 545 .deg. C and 700 .deg. C with 250 dpa of a very high neutron dose rate. To realize this system, it is necessary to develop an advanced structural material having high creep and irradiation resistance at high temperatures. Austenitic stainless steel may be one of the candidates because of good strength and corrosion resistance at the high temperatures, however irradiation swelling severely occurred to 120dpa at high temperatures and this eventually leads to a decrease of the mechanical properties and dimensional stability. Advanced radiation resistant ODS steel (ARROS) has been newly developed for the in-core structural components in SFR, which has very attractive microstructures to achieve both superior creep and radiation resistances at high temperatures [4]. Nevertheless, the use of ARROS as a structural material essentially requires the fabrication technology development for component parts such as sheet, plate and tube. In this study, plates and tubes were tentatively fabricated with a newly developed alloy, ARROS. Microstructures as well as mechanical properties were also investigated to determine the optimized condition of the fabrication processes.