Abstract
Transmission electron microscopy has been used to study the microstructure of vanadium irradiated at reactor ambient temperature (∼ 70°C) to a fast (E > 1 MeV) neutron fluence of 5 x 1019 n/cm2. Observations were made of the as-irradiated material, and after one-hour vacuum annealing at various temperatures ranging from 330°C to 1175°C.In the as-irradiated condition, shown in Fig. 1, a very high density of small defect clusters was present. These clusters appeared as black dots averaging approximately 25-50 Å in diameter, and were estimated to be present in quantities of 1016 to 1017 per cm3. Post-irradiation annealing caused the clusters to increase in average size and decrease in number, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, until after the highest temperature anneal, 1175°C, the cluster density was legs than 1014 per cm3 and the average cluster size was approximately 500Å. After annealing at temperatures of 510°C or above, many of the clusters were seen to be resolvable as dislocation loops. Tilting experiments indicated that these loops were probably interstitial in nature.
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