AUTHOR=Xu Yuwen , Yun Di , Yan Xu , Zhang Ping , Yan Wei , Li Yanfen , Li Chao , Li Jiao , Zhang Tongmin , Li Jun , Zhou Junjun , Kang Long , Lu Chenyang TITLE=Effects of Fe self-ion irradiation on a low carbon MX-ODS steel at 550°C JOURNAL=Frontiers in Energy Research VOLUME=10 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/energy-research/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2022.988745 DOI=10.3389/fenrg.2022.988745 ISSN=2296-598X ABSTRACT=

Oxide Dispersion Strengthened (ODS) steels with nano-scale oxides have become one of the candidate materials used in advanced nuclear reactor systems. A novel MX-ODS steel with extremely low carbon content was irradiated with 3 MeV Fe ions at 550°C up to peak damage of 70 dpa. The steel contains uniformly distributed Y2O3 nano-precipitates with an average size of 3.5 nm and a number density of 5 × 1022/m3. A V-rich shell was found surrounding the core of Y, O, and Si at some particles. Two types of large precipitates, Y-Ta-Si oxides, and VN, were observed in the steel instead of carbides. Voids of very small size are present due to irradiation and the calculated void swelling was only 0.004%, suggesting good irradiation tolerance of the MX-ODS steel in this study. Fine and dense oxide nano-precipitates and their shell-core structure remained stable while the shape of large precipitates changed after irradiation.