Radiation tolerance of La-doped nanocrystalline steel under heavy-ion irradiation at different temperatures.

Nanostructured materials have great potential for use as structural materials in advanced nuclear reactors due to the high density of grain boundaries that can serve as sinks to absorb irradiation-induced defects. In the present study, the irradiation tolerance of a La-doped nanocrystalline 304 austenitic stainless steel (NC-La) with a grain size of about 40 nm was investigated under an irradiation of 6 MeV Au ions to 1.5 × 10 ions cm at 600 °C and room temperature.