Displacement damage induced in iron by gammas and neutrons under irradiation in the IFMIF test cell

Abstract This work presents a complete comparative analysis of the radiation damage induced in iron-based materials in IFMIF by photons and neutrons. The gamma induced damage takes into account, for the first time, both photonuclear and photoatomic reaction mechanisms. The relevant cross sections were taken from available data evaluations. The gamma and neutron radiation fields were calculated by the McDeLicious Monte Carlo code using a 3-D geometry model. Finally the gamma and neutron induced damages in the iron have been assessed inside the IFMIF test cell and the surrounding concrete walls. It was found that the photoatomic mechanism dominates the photonuclear with at least one hundred times higher damage rates. The ratio of the gamma and the neutron induced displacement damage was found to be 10 −3 inside the concrete wall and 10 −5 in the components close to d-Li source. This fraction may increase a few times due to the uncertainty of the evaluated γ-dpa cross sections and the different surviving probabilities for defects produced by gammas and neutrons, nevertheless unlikely exceed 1%.