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Cr-stabilized nanostructured ferritic alloys (NFAs), dispersion strengthened by an ultra-high density of nanooxides, are attractive candidates for many nuclear energy applications due to their high-temperature strength, in-service stability and remarkable irradiation tolerance. However, typical NFA deformation processing paths lead to crystallographic texturing, formation of brittle microstructures and low toughness orientations, making fabricating components very difficult. Here, we characterize the dislocation-mediated deformation mechanisms that lead to the brittle texture component. The as-extruded bar is less brittle than the cross-rolled plate, which contains a large population of pre-existing cleavage microcracks. More generally, deformed ODS/NFAs are most often textured and have anisotropic low toughness orientations, even absent microcracks. However, cross-rolling produces a very high volume fraction of a plate normal {001}<110>-texture component, which constitutes the brittle cleavage system in iron. Microcracks propagate along {001} low angle deformation induced subgrain boundaries in <110> directions after nucleating by the Cottrell mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nanostructured ferritic alloy (NFA), 14YWT, was produced in the form of thin walled tubing. The stability of the nano-oxides (NOs) was determined under 3.5 MeV Fe +2 irradiations up to a dose of ∼585 dpa at 450 °C. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) show that severe ion irradiation results in a ∼25% reduction in size between the unirradiated and irradiated case at 270 dpa while no further reduction within the experimental error was seen at higher doses. Conversely, number density increased by ∼30% after irradiation. This ‘inverse coarsening’ can be rationalized by the competition between radiation driven ballistic dissolution and diffusional NO reformation. No significant changes in the composition of the matrix or NOs were observed after irradiation. Modeling the experimental results also indicated a dissolution of the particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]