Peculiarities of radiation brittleness of austenitic steels and alloys with various nickel content

Studied has been the influence of the nickel content in austenite chromium-nickel steels and nickel alloys, having 15-45% Ni, on the plasticity characteristics before and after the neutron irradiation at 350 deg C. The research has been carried out, using the 03Kh16N15M3B, 03Kh20N20M4B, 03Kh20N25M4B and 03Kh20N45M4B type steels and alloys before and after the neutron fluence irradiation at 7.7x1020 neutr/cm2 (E>=0.5 MeV). It is shown that the increased nickel content in the chromium-nickel austenite alloys enhances their radiation resistance. Coarce-grained steels and alloys have better irradiation-condition plasticity characteristics, than fine-grained alloys. The obtained results are accounted for from the viewpoint of the radiation spot defect recombination at the confluences. The spot defects recombination points are the advance precipitation points during the homogeneous decay of a solid solution