Deuterium trapping at defects created with neutron and ion irradiations in tungsten

Abstract

The effects of neutron and ion irradiations on deuterium (D) retention in tungsten (W) were investigated. Specimens of pure W were irradiated with neutrons to 0.3 dpa at around 323 K and then exposed to high-flux D plasma at 473 and 773 K. The concentration of D significantly increased by neutron irradiation and reached 0.8 at% at 473 K and 0.4 at% at 773 K. Annealing tests for the specimens irradiated with 20 MeV W ions showed that the defects which play a dominant role in the trapping at high temperature were stable at least up to 973 K, while the density decreased at temperatures equal to or above 1123 K. These observations of the thermal stability of traps and the activation energy for D detrapping examined in a previous study (≈1.8 eV) indicated that the defects which contribute predominantly to trapping at 773 K were small voids. The higher concentration of trapped D at 473 K was explained by additional contributions of weaker traps. The release of trapped D was clearly enhanced by the exposure to atomic hydrogen at 473 K, though higher temperatures are more effective for using this effect for tritium removal in fusion reactors.