An accelerator facility for intermediate energy proton irradiation and testing of nuclear materials

The bulk irradiation of materials with 10 – 30 MeV protons promises to advance the study of radiation damage for fission and fusion power plants. Intermediate energy proton beams can now be dedicated to materials irradiation within university-scale laboratories. This paper describes the first such facility, with an Ionetix ION-12SC cyclotron producing 12 MeV proton beams. Samples are mm-scale tensile specimens with thicknesses up to300 μm, mounted to a cooled beam target with control over temperature. A specialized tensile tester for radioactive specimens at high temperature (500+°C) and/or vacuum represents the conditions in fission and fusion systems, while a digital image correlation system remotely measures strain. Overall, the facility provides university-scale irradiation and testing capability with intermediate energy protons to complement traditional in-core fission reactor and micro-scale ion irradiation. This facility demonstrates that bulk proton irradiation is a scalable and effective approach for nuclear materials research, down-selection, and qualification.