Saturation and Recovery in Neutron-Irradiated Molybdenum

A high-temperature (∼70-1200°C) resistivity recovery study of fast-neutron-irradiated ($E_n>~1$ MeV) molybdenum shows an anomalous saturation effect above about (5-10) × ${10}^{19}$ n/${\mathrm{cm}}^2$. This effect is interpreted as resulting from the self-annealing of the stage-III defects at the higher fluences (∼${10}^{21}$ n/${\mathrm{cm}}^2$) leaving essentially only the stage-IV defects after reactor ambient irradiation.