Speaker
Description
Spallation materials researches have been performed at PSI for more than 20 years. The activities are dominated by the SINQ Target Irradiation Program (STIP) and the post-irradiation examination (PIE) of STIP specimens. In the past five years, the 8th irradiation experiment of STIP (STIP-VIII) has been successfully carried out and some irradiated specimens of steel, tungsten, zircaloys and Al-alloy were investigated.
Due to the failure of SINQ Target-11 in 2016, heightened safety measures have been implemented since then. STIP-VIII, performed during 2018-2020, has to comply with the new safety requirement. Instead of placing specimens in a high proton and neutron flux region, the STIP-VIII specimens were irradiated in the upper part of Target-13, where the proton and neutron fluxes are much lower. In addition, tungsten specimens and liquid metal capsules were greatly limited in order to reduce risks. However, the irradiation condition of STIP-VIII is more relevant to fusion and fission reactors since due to lower the helium and hydrogen production. Therefore, materials from nuclear fission and fusion material programs are the majority in STIP-VIII. In this contribution, the details of STIP-VIII will be presented.
This contribution will also highlight the PIE results of steel, tungsten, zircaloys and Al-alloy specimens irradiated in previous STIP experiments and in STIP-VIII, including those from mechanical tests (tensile, 3-point bending (3PB) and small punch tests), microstructural analyses (transmission electron microscopy – TEM, and atom probe tomography – APT), and thermal diffusivity measurements. The results of 3PB testing on ferritic/martensitic steels in liquid lead-bismuth and APT analysis of spallation transmutation elements in tungsten will be described in more detail.
| Themes for the contribution | 3 Post-irradiation examination: |
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