The interaction of deuterium and tritium with radiation and other defects in austenitic steel and nickel

The methods of residual resistivity, annihilation of positrons, and nuclear reactions in nickel and austenitic steels were used to examine the interaction of deuterium and tritium with defects produced by electron- neutron- or ion-irradiation and plastic deformation. It was found that vacancies, dislocations and three-dimensional vacancy clusters captured hydrogen in nickel. Vacancy clusters were formed in the presence of deuterium and tritium at room temperature, when single vacancies were immobile. The type of the hydrogen isotope determined configurations of those clusters. Hydrogen atoms interacted with interstitial atoms at 150 K in nickel and at 220 K in steel. Deuterium segregation occurred both in nickel and austenitic steel under irradiation with deuterium ions, but the segregation exhibited a different behavior. A possible scheme of formation and evolution of deuterium segregation in the studied materials was proposed.