Hydrogen trapping in 3He-irradiated Fe

Abstract

The characteristics of irradiation-induced hydrogen (deuterium) traps in pure Fe were investigated for quantitative evaluation of tritium retention in fusion reactor components. The deuterium depth profiles of an Fe disk sample exposed to deuterium plasma were observed by means of nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) before and after irradiation with 0.8 MeV or 1.3 MeV 3He ions. Irradiation generated a number of traps, and deuterium retention was drastically increased subsequent to irradiation. Steady-state deuterium concentration in the trap and the solution sites were obtained by continuously charging the sample with deuterium during the NRA. Based on these values, the trapping energy, which is the enthalpy difference between the two sites, was estimated to be 0.38 eV. The number ratio of the trap to atomic displacement was 0.013. Some of the traps were annihilated around 523 K. The annihilation temperature, the trapping energy, and the equilibrium constant suggest that the trap is a dislocation loop introduced by the irradiation. It is deduced that the tritium inventory in the Fe components of a reactor should be drastically increased by neutron irradiation due to the formation of traps, but may be significantly reduced by high temperature operation of the components.