Characterization of radiation induced defects in EUROFER 97 after neutron irradiation

Specimens of EUROFER 97 prepared for impact tests have been irradiated to an average dose of 16.3 dpa at irradiation temperatures of 250–450 °C. TEM investigations have been performed to study radiation induced changes in the microstructure. The characterization and statistical analysis show the temperature dependant formation of small dislocation loops and He bubbles. The Burgers vector of dislocation loops was ½〈1 1 1〉. A novel feature is that within statistical uncertainty the maximum in the dislocation density observed around 300 °C decreased with decreasing irradiation temperature down to 250 °C. The TEM data are correlated with tensile and instrumented Charpy test results.