Use of MeV energy ion accelerators to simulate the neutron damage in fusion reactor materials

• Published in: Fusion engineering and design Vol. 146; pp. 1313 - 1316
• Main Authors: Spitsyn, Alexander V., Bobyr, Nikolay P., Kulevoy, Timur V., Fedin, Petr A., Semennikov, Alexander I., Stolbunov, Valery S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.09.2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Accelerators; Displacement damage; Fluence; Fusion reactor materials; Fusion reactors; Heavy ion accelerator; Heavy ions; High temperature; Ion accelerators; Proton accelerator; Protons; Radiation damage; Reactor materials; Reinforced reaction injection molding; Rhenium isotopes; Tungsten; Displacement damage; Heavy ion accelerator; Proton accelerator; Fusion reactor materials
• ISSN: 0920-3796; 1873-7196
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fusengdes.2019.02.065

This paper describes experimental techniques for irradiation of fusion reactor materials with MeV energy ions. The studies were conducted at the NRC “Kurchatov Institute” – ITEP. Two MeV-range linear ion accelerators were used for sample irradiation: the Heavy Ion Prototype (HIPr) accelerator with heavy ions and I-2 accelerator with protons. Target chambers of HIPr accelerator were modified to provide the simultaneous irradiation of four 10 × 10 mm2 samples at controlled elevated temperatures. Damage rates and profiles were calculated using the SRIM code. HIPr accelerator provided the damage of tungsten samples with 5.6 MeV Fe2+ ions at a rate of 0.05 dpa/h. I-2 accelerator was used to irradiate tungsten samples with 22 MeV protons to create a uniform damage profile at a depth of 0–400 μm with a rate of 5 × 10−7 dpa/h. Irradiation of tungsten samples with high energy protons causes generation of 183Re and 184Re with a half-life period of 70 and 38 days, respectively. Thus, the samples irradiated with a proton fluence of up to 1020 protons/m2 are subject to one year aging before manual handling.