Abstract
The effect of stepwise temperature changes on the evolution of the irradiation damage microstructure in Ni which results from D-T neutron irradiation was investigated by means of transmission electron microscopy. It was shown that pre-irradiation at different temperatures strongly affects the microstructural evolution during succeeding irradiation, even if the period of the pre-irradiation was short. In the case of stepwise irradiation at 90°C/350°C, a part of the interstitial loops nucleated in the pre-irradiation at 90°C grow in the subsequent irradiation and thus suppress the formation of voids. In the case of 290°C/150°C irradiation, interstitial loops formed in the pre-irradiation disappear partly by the subsequent irradiation at 150°C. These results show that a modification of the microstructure will occur as a result of lower temperature irradiation experiments during start up and shut down of fission reactor operation even if the period is short.
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