Characterizing irradiation damage in materials utilized in light water reactors is critical for both material development and application reliability. Here we use both nanoindentation and Laue micro diffraction to characterize both the mechanical response and microstructure evolution due to irradiation. Two different irradiation conditions were considered in 304 stainless steel: 1dpa and 10 dpa. In addition, an annealed condition of the 10 dpa specimen for 1 hour at 500 °C was evaluated. Nanoindentation revealed an increase in hardness due to irradiation and also revealed that hardness saturated in the 10 dpa case. Broadening using Laue micro diffraction peaks indicates a significant lattice strain in the irradiated area that is in good agreement with both the SRIM calculations and the nanoindentation results.

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