The role of bulk recombination in the theory of void swelling

Abstract

Bulk point-defect recombination in the rate theory of void-swelling is considered in two ways. First, the importance of recombination in the overall void-swelling problem is assessed in the light of current experimental data on the temperature dependence of the sink densities. It is found that the assumption that recombination is negligible at and above the peak swelling temperature is not generally true, and the situation is often the reverse of this. Secondly, recombination is included in the sink strengths themselves very much in the same spirit as the interactive correction terms have been for losses to other sinks. An approximate numerical procedure has been used to evaluate the resulting coupled sink strengths. Using only the corrections to the cavity sink strengths we have shown that these new terms are only significant at temperatures well in excess of the swelling peak in ST 316 under HVEM irradiations and that they need not be included as a general rule in rate theory calculations. Comparisons with a mathematical, perturbation theory treatment of the same problem and with full numerical cellular model results confirm the usefulness of the present method.