Structural materials for liquid metal cooled fast reactor fuel assemblies: operational behaviour

This publication summarizes the findings of several IAEA meetings on fast reactor materials and provides a review of historically available and new information on properties, fabrication technologies and irradiation behaviour of stainless steel structural materials for liquid metal cooled fast reactor (LMFR) fuel assemblies. It identifies different varieties of austenitic, ferritic-martensitic, oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels and nickel-base alloys used or planned to be used as fuel cladding and structural components of fast reactor fuel assemblies, describes manufacturing processes of LMFR fuel cladding tubes and in-core components, and overviews the operational behaviour of these materials in fast reactors. Particular focus is given to ODS steels as the promising path forward to achieving higher fuel burnup in fast reactors.