Void swelling in high dose ion-irradiated reduced activation ferritic-martensitic steels

To determine the void swelling resistance of reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic steels CNS I and CNS II at high doses, ion irradiation was performed up to 188 dpa (4.6 × 1017 ion/cm2) at 460 °C using 5 MeV Fe++ ions. Helium was pre-implanted at levels of 10 and 100 appm at room temperature to investigate the role of helium on void swelling. Commercial FM steel T91 was also irradiated in this condition and the swelling results are of included in this paper as a reference. Voids were observed in all conditions. The 9Cr CNS I samples implanted with 10 appm helium exhibited lower swelling than 9Cr T91 irradiated at the same condition. The 12Cr CNS II with 10 and 100 appm helium showed significantly lower swelling than CNS I and T91. The swelling rate for CNS I and CNS II were determined to be 0.02%/dpa and 0.003%/dpa respectively. Increasing the helium content from 10 to 100 appm shortened the incubation region and increased the void density but had no effect on the swelling rates.