Five simple alloys were ion irradiated at 948 K in an experiment designed to investigate the mechanism of swelling suppression associated wtih phosphorous additions. One of the alloys was the simple ternary Fe-15Ni-13Cr, another had 0.05% P added and the other three had further additions of the phosphide precipitate-forming elements Ti and/or Si. Ion irradiations were carried out with heavy ions only (Ni or Fe) or with heavy ions followed by dual heavy ions and helium. The ternary with and without P swelled readily early in dose with or without helium. The other three alloys only showed swelling in the presence of helium and exhibited a long delay in dose prior to the onset of swelling. These displayed fine distributions of Fe 2P type phosphide precipitates enhanced by irradiation. The phosphide particles gave rise to very high concentrations of stable helium filled cavities at the precipitate matrix interfaces. The results were analyzed in terms of the theory of cavity swelling. The accumulation of the critical number of gas atoms in an individual cavity is required in the theory for point defect driven swelling to begin. It is concluded that the primary mechanism leading to swelling suppression is therefore the dilution of injected helium over a very large number of cavities. It is suggested that this mechanism may offer a key for alloy design for swelling resistance in high helium environments.