"Neutron Irradiation Damage in Tungsten and Tungsten Alloys" 

Adil Wazeer, MSE PhD Candidate 

Advisor: Professor Xinghang Zhang

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ABSTRACT

Neutron irradiation poses a substantial challenge in the development and application of tungsten (W) and its alloys, predominantly in the framework of nuclear fusion and fission environments. Although W is well acknowledged for its unique properties like high melting temperature and higher resistance to sputtering, during the operation of the fusion reactor there is development of transmutation elements, such as Re and Os, as a result of neutron irradiation. This transmutation effect accompanied by significant microstructure damage may lead to significant degradation of mechanical properties. Large amounts of datasets of the neutron irradiation effects of W as the have been curated from multiple sources with different neutron fluences and temperature are ongoing. However, despite the extensive data collected for W, the data are still scattered and focused primarily on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mechanical properties without a fundamental understanding of the physics of radiation damage and degradation in W and W alloys. Also, neutron irradiation damage studies on tungsten are limited to a dose level of 4 dpa and not much experimental data is evident in this community. Experimental investigation of neutron exposure on tungsten at higher levels of dose is essentially required in order to have a correlative and in depth understanding of the neutron irradiation on tungsten and its alloys to study the interplay between the properties and the microstructural development taking place post irradiation