The effect of the dislocation structure upon the accumulation and annealing processes of radiation defects in cold-deformed austenitic Fe-36.5wt%Ni alloys and Kh16N15M3 steels in the early stages of radiation-induced damage (10-4 to 10-3dpa) was studied by means of positron annihilation. It was found that, in deformed samples with an initial dislocation density of 1011 to 2 x 1011/cm2 and irradiated with electrons at room temperature, the concentration of vacancy clusters decreased several times as compared with that of samples which were first quenched. At high (573K) irradiation temperatures, no formation of vacancy clusters was found in the deformed alloys. The initial dislocation structure which developed, and its local inhomogeneity, also affected the annealing of vacancy clusters.

Accumulation and Annealing of Radiation Defects in Deformed Austenitic Alloys. A.P.Druzhkov, V.L.Arbuzov, D.A.Perminov: Physics of Metals and Metallography, 2002, 94[1], 68-72