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No satisfactory method of predicting the life of dispersion fuels is in present use because the complexity of the factors relating to the structure of the fuel material and to the fluctuations in irradiation conditions makes meaningful correlation and interpretation of experimental data extremely difficult. In the present study, a method was proposed in which the effects of irradiation conditions are considered independently of material variables. Two simple failure models were devised (failure by creep and by short-term yield), and criteria which permit estimates of the relative severity of tests made under different test conditions but on identical specimens were developed. Numerical application of the procedures for 18-8 stainless steel-25 and-30 w/'o UOt) specimens was attempted. No positive verification of the shortterm stress model was obtained, but the creep model yielded the approximate failure limits for both specimen compositions.

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