Helium bubble formation and evolution in NiMo-Y2O3 alloy under He ion irradiation

Abstract

We report helium ion irradiation experiments for a new type of dispersion-strengthened NiMo-Y2O3 alloy with three different irradiation doses and varying irradiation dose rates at 750 °C to evaluate its helium-induced damage behavior. Transmission electron microscopy was used to reveal the evolution of helium bubbles after irradiation. The experimental results show that with increasing ion dose, the number density of helium bubbles increases continuously. However, the mean size of helium bubbles first increases and then decreases, mainly due to the varied ion dose rates. The volume fractions of helium bubbles in the three investigated samples after irradiation are 0.15%, 0.32%, and 0.27%, which are lower than that of the Hastelloy N alloy (0.58%) after similar irradiation conditions. This indicates that the NiMo-Y2O3 alloy exhibits better helium-induced-swelling resistance than the Hastelloy N alloy, highlighting its potential applicability to MSRs, from the perspective of irradiation performance.