Preparation and Analysis of Austenitic Steel Samples Irradiated at Very High Damage Doses

This report describes the preliminary results of the visual inspection, cutting, preparation for IASCC (irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking) testing, and property evaluation of austenitic stainless steel specimens irradiated at very-high-damage doses (up to 125 dpa) in the BOR-60 fast reactor. Work was performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory using the Irradiated Materials Examination and Testing (hot cell) Facility and the Low Activation Materials Development and Analysis (LAMDA) laboratory. Report sections describe specific aspects of the research activity. Section 1 reviews the general background, material, and specimen origin, and provides detailed information on material composition and damage dose level. Section 2 describes operations performed with irradiated specimens at the hot cell facility and LAMDA laboratory. At the moment, tensile specimen preparation is complete, and the tensile bars are ready for shipment to the University of Michigan for stress corrosion cracking testing. Section 3 discusses the microstructure of archive alloys and post-irradiation material properties; because of the very limited timeframe, only selected results are given on the magnetic properties of the irradiated specimens. Section 4 summarizes the work performed, presents conclusions, and discusses future activities within the line of research.