Production of long-lived radionuclides 10Be, 14C, 53Mn, 55Fe, 59Ni and 202gPb in a fusion environment

Abstract

In a fusion reactor and also in future advanced reactor types, long-lived activation products may lead to significant long-term waste disposals and radiation damage. Many of these production cross sections are not well-known, making it difficult to calculate concentration limits. Some prominent long-lived activation products comprise10Be,14C, and26Al; in the medium-mass range the ra- dionuclides53Mn,55,60Fe,59,63Ni; and for heavier isotopes202mPb,210mBi. Since a few years the technique of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has been applied at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) facility for the detection of long-lived radionuclides for such stud- ies. In this respect, samples were irradiated with quasi-monoenergetic neutrons at TU Dresden's 14-MeV neutron generator and the van de Graaff accelerator at IRMM. After the activations the samples were prepared for isotope ratio measurements via AMS. Production of long-lived53Mn and59Ni was measured via AMS utilizing the 14-MV tandem of the Maier-Leibnitz- laboratory, TU Munich. Radionuclides10Be,14C,26Al,55Fe,210mBi, and202gPb are measured at the VERA facility.