Swelling and creep observed in AISI 304 fuel pin cladding from three MOX fuel assemblies irradiated in EBR-II

Three 37-pin MOX-fueled experimental subassemblies were irradiated in EBR-II with fuel pin cladding constructed from annealed AISI 304 stainless steel. Analysis of the swelling and irradiation creep of the cladding showed that the terminal swelling rate of AISI 304 stainless steel appears to be ∼1%/dpa and that swelling is very reproducible for identical irradiation conditions. The swelling at a given neutron fluence is rather sensitive to both irradiation temperature and especially to the neutron flux, however, with the primary influence residing in the transient regime. As the neutron flux increases the duration of the transient regime is increased in agreement with other recent studies. The duration of the transient regime is also decreased by increasing irradiation temperature. In these assemblies swelling reached high levels rather quickly, reducing the opportunity for fuel pin cladding interaction and thereby reducing the contribution of irradiation creep to the total deformation. It also appears that in this swelling-before-creep scenario that the well-known “creep disappearance” phenomenon was operating strongly.