Transmutation Effects in Fusion Reactor Materials: Critical Challenges & Path Forward: Poster Session
Sponsored by: TMS Structural Materials Division, TMS: Nuclear Materials Committee
Program Organizers: Arunodaya Bhattacharya, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Steven Zinkle, University of Tennessee; Philip Edmondson, The University Of Manchester; Aurelie Gentils, Université Paris-Saclay; David Sprouster, Stony Brook University; Takashi Nozawa, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST); Martin Freer, University of Birmingham

Tuesday 5:30 PM
March 21, 2023
Room: Exhibit Hall G
Location: SDCC

Session Chair: Yan-Ru Lin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory


O-16: Microstructural Investigation of Irradiated REBCO Coated Conductors for Future HTS Fusion Magnets and Other High-dose Environments: Christopher Reis1; 1University of California, Berkeley
    Nuclear fusion is an enticing alternative to current energy paradigms and recent performance advances in the high-temperature superconductor (HTS) Rare-Earth Barium Copper Oxide (REBCO) have made it a leading candidate magnet material for near-future compact fusion. Since the performance and integrity of these materials have been shown to be sensitive to irradiation, assessing the operational limits of these HTS materials at in-service conditions is crucial where high-field reactors are concerned. We intend to study the microstructural changes in REBCO irradiated to fluences/DPAs expected in future fusion reactors, using transmission electron microscopy and advanced image analysis. We intend to quantify the damage done by neutrons using image analysis techniques, such as average spectral entropy, then for the first time use machine learning (ML) algorithms to make analytically robust and predictively capable models. This will enable us to do several novel characterizations including relating metrics of radiation (eg. DPA) to entropy values.