Influence of boron on void swelling in model austenitic steels

Abstract Model austenitic steels based on Fe–15Cr–16Ni with additions of 0.25Ti, 500 appm B, or 0.25Ti–500 appm B were irradiated in FFTF/MOTA over a wide range of dose rates at ∼400 °C. In addition to the effect of dose rate on swelling, it was desired to study the effect of boron addition to produce variations in He/dpa ratio. A strong effect of dose rate was observed, so strong that the relatively small distances separating the boron-free and doped alloys introduced a complication into the experiment. For specimens irradiated within the core, boron addition had no significant effect. For irradiations conducted near or outside the core edge, swelling appeared to be either enhanced or decreased by boron. The variability was a consequence of a strong dose rate effect overwhelming the influence of boron and helium. It is shown that helium exerted little influence relative to other important factors in these alloys.