Presentation of the results for deuterium retention and thermal release in a new type of low activation ferritic-martensitic steel EUROFER

Sanja Korica

doi:10.5937/vojtehg64-9327

Abstract

This work presents the results of the investigation into deuterium retention and thermal release in low activation ferritic-martensitic steel EUROFER and its main components, Fe and Cr, using ion implantation, nuclear reaction depth profiling and the thermal desorption spectrometry technique. The samples were exposed to deuterium ECR plasma of 6.5*1024 Dm-2 fluence. Our NRA results show that, at 300 K, most of deuterium is trapped in the near-surface region. A part of the implanted deuterium diffuses into the bulk and is trapped by defects beyond the implantation range. The results of the TDS measurement of the Cr sample confirm the formation of an ordered Cr-hydride phase.

Highlights

Reduced activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steels are presently the leading candidate materials for the first wall and breeding blanket structural application for ITER and future power plants
As a structural material for the future fusion application, EUROFER will be exposed to intense fluxes of energetic hydrogen isotope ions and neutrals as products of nuclear reactions (Yao, 2005, pp.1285-1291)
Hydrogen transport and trapping in EUROFER have been recently studied by means of the gas evolution permeation technique (Esteban, 2007, pp.473-477) assuming that martensitic steel is close to a bcc structure where H occupies only tetrahedral interstitial positions (Seeger, 1976, pp.137-138)

Summary

Introduction

Reduced activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steels are presently the leading candidate materials for the first wall and breeding blanket structural application for ITER and future power plants. S., Presentation of the results for deuterium retention and thermal release in a new type of low activation ferritic-martensitic steel EUROFER, pp. The depth profiles in the both samples are characterized by a very high concentration of deuterium in the near surface region, probably due to the trapping at the plasma irradiation induced defects.

Results

Conclusion