1. An accelerator facility for intermediate energy proton irradiation and testing of nuclear materials
- Author
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Z.S. Hartwig, Areg Danagoulian, Brandon Sorbom, Steven Jepeal, E. Velez Lopez, D.A. Korsun, H.Y. Lee, N. Schwartz, and L.A. Kesler
- Subjects
Nuclear and High Energy Physics ,Materials science ,Proton ,Fission ,Nuclear engineering ,Nuclear Theory ,Cyclotron ,FOS: Physical sciences ,02 engineering and technology ,01 natural sciences ,010305 fluids & plasmas ,law.invention ,law ,0103 physical sciences ,Radiation damage ,Irradiation ,Nuclear Experiment ,Instrumentation ,Tensile testing ,Condensed Matter - Materials Science ,Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) ,Fusion power ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Physics::Accelerator Physics ,0210 nano-technology ,Beam (structure) - Abstract
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 um, mounted to a cooled beam target with control over temperature. A specialized tensile tester for radioactive specimens at high temperature (500+ {\deg}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., Comment: Submitted to NIM B journal
- Published
- 2021