In situ proton irradiation-induced creep at very high temperature

This objective of this work was to develop an experimental facility that can perform in situ high temperature proton irradiation-induced creep experiments on a range of materials. This was achieved by designing an irradiation chamber and stage that allows for load application and removal, provides a method for controlling and monitoring temperature and proton flux, and a means to make in situ measurement of dimensional change of the samples during the experiment. Initial experiments on POCO Graphite Inc. ZXF-5Q grade ultra-fine grain samples irradiated at 1000 °C at a damage rate of 1.15 × 10−6 dpa/s exhibited a linear dependence of measured creep rate on applied stress over a range of stresses from 10 MPa to 40 MPa.