A study was made of defect processes during microstructural evolution in austenitic stainless steels. This included the consideration of microstructural evolution via the reaction of free defects, the high migration energy (0.9ev) of interstitials, and the very small interstitial-interstitial reaction coefficient which characterized the nucleation of interstitial loops in these alloys. Attention was also paid to the role played by cascade damage in microstructural evolution at various temperatures, and to the cascade damage-enhanced nucleation of interstitial loops and vacancy clusters at low temperatures; an effect which disappeared at 400 to 500C.

Evolution of Microstructure in Fe-Cr-Ni Austenitic Alloys during Irradiation. N.Yoshida: Journal of Nuclear Materials, 1993, 205, 344-53