Abstract
Development of oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels, as candidates for fuel claddings for Gen IV nuclear reactors, requires a comprehensive study of their behaviour under operating conditions. In this work, 1.2 MeV/amu Kr and Xe irradiation was used to simulate fission fragment impact. New irradiation approaches with respect to a non-homogeneous damage profile under ion irradiation were proposed. Hardness profiles of irradiated ODS steels were obtained by continuous stiffness measurements with subsequent analysis of size effects according to the Nix–Gao model. It was found, that heavy ion irradiation leads to hardness saturation in ODS steels in a damage dose range of 0.1–1 dpa. Observed hardening is about 20% and is not connected with the radiation stability of Y–Ti–O and Y–Al–O oxide particles in ODS steels as it was studied by TEM.
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