= Solution
\b[Delay cavity nucleation and prevent a large sustained <vacancy> flux to growing cavities.] Select an austenitic alloy composition and heat treatment demonstrated to have low <void swelling> in the intended spectrum and <temperature> range; modest composition changes can alter <precipitation (chemistry)>, segregation and sink evolution. The grade label alone is insufficient.
<cold working> supplies a <dislocation> population that can alter defect capture and extend the low-swelling transient. Stable fine precipitates or other engineered sinks can promote defect removal, but capture bias matters as well as sink count. Irradiation and thermal recovery can erase the starting <microstructure>, so an initially favourable state must be checked at relevant dose. Controlled impurity and helium-producing constituent contents can reduce harmful gas effects, subject to <corrosion> resistance and phase-stability requirements.
Operating outside a strong-swelling regime, reducing accumulated exposure or replacing components before their qualified limit are complementary measures. Each trades against other constraints such as <corrosion>, <creep (deformation)>, <ductility> and heat removal. \b[“More <cold working>” or “more sinks” is not an unlimited prescription.] Measurements must separate <void swelling> from <creep (deformation)>; reducing one does not establish that the other was reduced. The pressurised-tube study is a particularly useful control because, after separating stress-enhanced <void swelling>, its derived <creep (deformation)> <strains> were similar for annealed and cold-worked specimens.<The influence of cold-work level on the irradiation creep and swelling of AISI 316 stainless steel by E. R. Gilbert and F. A. Garner>[PNNL abstract, comparison after correction for stress-enhanced swelling]{ref}
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