The effect of low dose rate irradiation on the swelling of 12% cold-worked 316 stainless steel.

In pressurized water reactors (PWRs), stainless steel components are irradiated at temperatures that may reach 400 C due to gamma heating. If large amounts of swelling (>10%) occur in these reactor internals, significant swelling related embrittlement may occur. Although fast reactor studies indicate that swelling should be insignificant at PWR temperatures, the low dose rate conditions experienced by PWR components may possibly lead to significant swelling. To address these issues, JNC and ANL have collaborated to analyze swelling in 316 stainless steel, irradiated in the EBR-II reactor at temperatures from 376-444 C, at dose rates between 4.9 x 10{sup {minus}8} and 5.8 x 10{sup {minus}7} dpa/s, and to doses of 56 dpa. For these irradiation conditions, the swelling decreases markedly at temperatures less than approximately 386 C, with the extrapolated swelling at 100 dpa being around 3%. For temperatures greater than 386 C, the swelling extrapolated to 100 dpa is around 9%. For a factor of two difference in dose rate, no statistically significant effect of dose rate on swelling was seen. For the range of dose rates analyzed, the swelling measurements do not support significant (>10%) swelling of 316 stainless steel in PWRs