Materials researches at the Paul Scherrer Institute for developing high power spallation targets

For the R&D of high power spallation targets, one of the key issues is understanding the behavior of structural materials in the severe irradiation environments in spallation targets. At PSI, several experiments have been conducted using the targets of the Swiss spallation neutron source (SINQ) for studying radiation damage effects induced by high energy protons and spallation neutrons. As well, experiments have been performed to investigate liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) corrosion and embrittlement effects on T91 steel under irradiation with 72 MeV protons. In this paper, an overview will be given showing a selection of results from these experiments, which include the mechanical properties and microstructure of ferritic/maretensitic (FM) steels (T91, F82H, Optifer etc.) and austenitic steels (EC316LN, SS 316L, JPCA etc.) irradiated to doses higher than ever attained by irradiation in a spallation environment, and the behaviors of T91 irradiated with 72 MeV protons in contact with flowing LBE.