Tensile properties of austenitic stainless steels irradiated at SINQ target 3

The beam window of the spallation target will be subjected to proton/neutron irradiation. It is important to know the irradiation effect on structural materials to facilitate the facility design and the lifetime evaluation. The SINQ target irradiation program (STIP) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) began to obtain high-energy proton irradiation data. JAERI joined this program and shares the post irradiation experimental (PIE) work. The JAERI specimens were irradiated at 90–380 °C and dpa ranged from 3.5 to 11.8 dpa. Tensile tests were done in air at RT and 250 °C. The results on JPCA-SA and 316F-SA indicate that the irradiation caused considerable hardening and degradation of ductility. However, no drastic change of tensile properties was shown in comparison with specimens irradiated in fission reactors. Fracture surfaces were observed by microscope and their morphology revealed fracture in a ductile manner.