An accelerator facility for intermediate energy proton irradiation and testing of nuclear materials

NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION B-BEAM INTERACTIONS WITH MATERIALS AND ATOMS

卷:489

Article

Jepeal, S. J.¹  Danagoulian, A.¹  Kesler, L. A.¹  Korsun, D. A.¹  Lee, H. Y.¹  Schwartz, N.²  Sorbom, B. N.¹  Lopez, E. Velez¹  Hartwig, Z. S.¹ 

[1] MIT, Dept Nucl Sci & Engn, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

[2] MIT, Dept Mech Engn, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

关键词: Intermediate energy proton irradiation;    Radiation damage;    Nuclear materials;    Superconducting cyclotrons;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.nimb.2020.12.020

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The bulk irradiation of materials with 10-30 MeV protons promises to advance the study of radiation damage for fission and fusion power plants. Intermediate energy proton beams can now be dedicated to materials irradiation within university-scale laboratories. This paper describes the first such facility, with an Ionetix ION-12SC cyclotron producing 12 MeV proton beams. Samples are mm-scale tensile specimens with thicknesses up to 300 mu m, mounted to a cooled beam target with control over temperature. A specialized tensile tester for radioactive specimens at high temperature (500+ degrees C) and/or vacuum represents the conditions in fission and fusion systems, while a digital image correlation system remotely measures strain. Overall, the facility provides university-scale irradiation and testing capability with intermediate energy protons to complement traditional in-core fission reactor and micro-scale ion irradiation. This facility demonstrates that bulk proton irradiation is a scalable and effective approach for nuclear materials research, down-selection, and qualification.

【 授权许可】

Free