Neutron-induced dpa, transmutations, gas production, and helium embrittlement of fusion materials
By Mark R. Gilbert, S. Dudarev, Duc Nguyen-Manh, S. Zheng, L. Packer, J. Sublet. 2013
170 citations recorded by the source corpus.
In a fusion reactor materials will be subjected to significant fluxes of high-energy neutrons. As well as causing radiation damage, the neutrons also initiate nuclear reactions leading to changes in the chemical composition of materials (transmutation). Many of these reactions produce gases, particularly helium, which cause additional swelling and embrittlement of materials. This paper investigates, using a combination of neutron-transport and inventory calculations, the variation in displacements per atom (dpa) and helium production levels as a function of position within the high flux regions of a recent conceptual model for the ‘next-step’ fusion device DEMO. Subsequently, the gas production rates are used to provide revised estimates, based on new density-functional-theory results, for the critical component lifetimes associated with the helium-induced grain-boundary embrittlement of materials. The revised estimates give more optimistic projections for the lifetimes of materials in a fusion power plant compared to a previous study, while at the same time indicating that helium embrittlement remains one of the most significant factors controlling the structural integrity of fusion power plant components.
Subfields: Aerospace Engineering, Materials Chemistry
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a8a9ccfeff565e10131cea4bd66b334e715895f7
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Citations in the corpus
- Developing structural, high-heat flux and plasma facing materials for a near-term DEMO fusion power plant: The EU assessment (2014, methodology): “The neutronics simulations [15] scaled to the DEMO concept power level show that the neutron damage level in a PFC material like tungsten (as used in ITER) will be ≤ 9 dpa/fpy for first wall armour, and ≤6-7 dpa/fpy for the divertor, whilst for tungsten in the shielded plasma ‘strike-zones’ of the d”
- European DEMO design strategy and consequences for materials (2017, background): “The radiation damage from the neutronics simulations of the divertor show that the predicted damage for the tungsten divertor armour would be ~3 dpa/fpy, whilst if copper were the coolant interface material in the high-heat-flux components of the divertor, the radiation damage would be a maximum of ”