The effect of the neutron energy spectrum on neutron displacement damage in niobium

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of displacement damage produced in niobium, which has potential use as the first wall material of a fusion reactor.Lindhard's formalism was used together with cross sections taken from the UK nuclear data file on niobium. Data sets describing damage energy created at various neutron incident energies were generated. It was calculated that: The ratio of damage density (ie mean damage energy × cross section) at 14 MeV to that at 1 MeV is 3·5 to 1·00.The damage energy data sets were integrated over two different neutron spectra in order to compare the total effects. The spectra were taken from: (a) the first wall of a model fusion reactor, with a total flux of 2·8 × 1015neutrons/cm2s; (b) the core centre of the Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR), total flux 2·5 × 1015neutrons/cm2s.Analysis showed that the number of atomic displacements per atom per year is 165 displacements for spectrum (a); 78 displacements for spectrum (b).

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: