Improving resistance of austenitic stainless steel to irradiation damage

Abstract

It is believed that the addition of oversized solute atoms disturbs the process of recombination, agglomeration, and migration of point defects during irradiation process and thereby alters radiation damage, including radiation induced segregation. In this study, austenitic stainless steel (SS) 316 samples with different Ce content (0.00, 0.01, 0.04 and 0.09 wt% Ce) were irradiated using 4.8 MeV protons at 300^°C to the total fluence of 9.724×10¹⁷ p/cm². Irradiated samples were characterized using double-loop electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation (DL-EPR) technique for the extent of RIS due to proton irradiation. It was found that the sample with 0.04 wt% Ce content showed the lowest EPR value, as measured by DL-EPR. It was also noticed that the slip lines were get preferentially attacked vis-à-vis grain boundaries. SS 316 Ce 0.09 wt% sample did not have any slip-lines and attack during the DL-EPR was confined to grain boundaries and few pitlike structures were noticed during AFM examinations.