Proton irradiation emulation of PWR neutron damage microstructures in solution annealed 304 and cold-worked 316 stainless steels

Solution annealed (SA) 304 and cold-worked (CW) 316 austenitic stainless steels were pre-implanted with helium and were irradiated with protons in order to study the potential effects of helium, irradiation dose, and irradiation temperature on microstructural evolution, especially void swelling, with relevance to the behavior of austenitic core internals in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). These steels were irradiated with 1 MeV protons to doses between 1 and 10 dpa at 300 °C both with or without 15 appm helium pre-implanted at ∼100 °C. They were also irradiated at 340 °C, but only after 15 appm helium pre-implantation. Small heterogeneously distributed voids were observed in both alloys irradiated at 300 °C, but only after helium pre-implantation. The pre-implanted steels irradiated at 340 °C exhibited homogenous void formation, suggesting effects of both helium and irradiation temperature on void nucleation. Voids developed sooner in the SA304 alloy than CW316 alloy at 300 and 340 °C, consistent with the behavior observed at higher temperatures (>370 °C) for similar steels irradiated in the EBR-II fast reactor. The development of the Frank loop microstructure was similar in both alloys, and was only marginally affected by pre-implanted helium. Loop densities were insensitive to dose and irradiation temperature, and were decreased by helium; loop sizes increased with dose up to about 5.5 dpa and were not affected by the pre-implanted helium. Comparison with microstructures produced by neutron irradiation suggests that this method of helium pre-implantation and proton irradiation emulates neutron irradiation under PWR conditions.