AbstractA study was completed on irradiated and unirradiated (offcut) material from Pickering Nuclear Generating Station (NGS) A Unit 3 pressure tubes which were fabricated from ingots of 100% recycled material (quadruple‐vacuum‐arc‐melted). The toughness of the material is shown to be generally higher than that of previous material fabricated from<100% recycled material (double‐vacuum‐arc‐melted). Fractographic and microstructural studies demonstrate that variations in toughness of the low chlorine (<1 ppm) material are predominantly due to preferential void nucleation at particles, in particular aligned zirconium phosphides. In the absence of such particles, very high toughness levels can be maintained after