Abstract
The Cr-Mo ferritic (martensitic) steels and austenitic stainless steels (primarily type 316 and variations on that composition) are the leading candidates for the structural components for future fusion reactors. However, irradiation of such steels in a fusion environment produces long-lived radioactive isotopes. These isotopes lead to difficult radioactive waste disposal problems once the structure is removed from service. Such problems could be reduced by developing steels that contain only elements that produce radioactive isotopes that decay to low levels in a reasonable time (tens of years instead of hundreds or thousands of years). This report discusses the development of such steels by making elemental substitutions in the steels now under consideration. Molybdenum must be replaced in the Cr-Mo steels; nickel and molybdenum both must be replaced in the austenitic stainless steels (the nitrogen concentration must be limited, and niobium, maintained to extremely low levels). Appropriate substitutions are tungsten for molybdenum in the Cr-Mo steels and manganese for nickel in the austenitic stainless steels. Indications are that suitable ferritic steels can be developed, but development of a nickel-free austenitic stainless steel with properties similar to the Cr-Ni stainless steels appears to be much more complex.