Post-irradiation microstructural examination of EUROFER-ODS steel irradiated at 300°C and 400°C

The effect of neutron irradiation on the microstructure of EUROFER-ODS alloy reinforced with an addition of 0.5% Y2O3 was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. The irradiation of up to 16.2 dpa damage dose at 300°C and 400°C was performed in Petten High Flux Reactor. This study focuses on the imaging, identification, and quantitative analysis of interstitial loops and voids located on ODS particles. The nano-sized loops and point defects with b½〈111〉 Burgers vectors are preferentially located near structural defects such as the line dislocations or impurities in the material irradiated at 300°C. Homogeneously distributed loops having Burgers vectors of b½〈111〉 and b〈100〉 types were found in the material irradiated at 400°C. The obtained quantitative data on radiation-induced defects such as size, number density and relaxation volume were compared with EUROFER97 irradiated at the same conditions. It was found that the occurrence of radiation induced defects depends on the local number density and the size distribution of the ODS particles and not only on the irradiation damage and temperature.