The design, setup and operational testing of the irradiation and corrosion experiment (ICE)

Abstract

Developing and qualifying nuclear materials have traditionally been a very costly enterprise that often takes a decade or longer. The bottleneck has been the need to test materials under extreme conditions, where long irradiations times have been required. A irradiation and corrosion experiment (ICE) facility is introduced which uses low energy proton irradiation and enables testing of materials under a wide range of different conditions and environments with the benefit of relatively quick tests, low sample activation, efficiency and low cost, and the ability to obtain a wide range of data from one sample. These data can be compared to data gained from neutron irradiation experiments. Supplement to extreme conditions in nuclear reactors, this dedicated experiment will allow fast materials testing and basic studies in order to get a quicker and better understanding of the materials behavior in different environments under irradiation. We present the basic experimental design, experimental testing, and first operational experience.