Fusion materials irradiations at MaRIE'S fission fusion facility

Abstract

Los Alamos National Laboratory's proposed signature facility, MaRIE, will provide scientists and engineers with new capabilities for modeling, synthesizing, examining, and testing materials of the future that will enhance the USA's energy security and national security. In the area of fusion power, the development of new structural alloys with better tolerance to the harsh radiation environments expected in fusion reactors will lead to improved safety and lower operating costs. The Fission and Fusion Materials Facility (F 3), one of three pillars of the proposed MaRIE facility, will offer researchers unprecedented access to a neutron radiation environment so that the effects of radiation damage on materials can be measured in situ, during irradiation. The calculated radiation damage conditions within the F 3 match, in many respects, that of a fusion reactor first wall, making it well suited for testing fusion materials. Here we report in particular on two important characteristics of the radiation environment with relevancy to radiation damage: the primary knock-on atom spectrum and the impact of the pulse structure of the proton beam on temporal characteristics of the atomic displacement rate. With respect to both of these, analyses show that F 3 has conditions that are consistent with those of a steady-state fusion reactor first wall.